There was no other option for the Bermuda Government’s planned airport redevelopment because “we can’t afford it any other way”, finance minister Bob Richards said last night.

Non-tendered agreements and resorting to public-private partnerships, or P3s, were a necessary resort for replacing the Island’s ageing airport terminal, the minister told a town hall meeting attended by about 100 people last night.

Tendering the project would have been too time-consuming and expensive, Mr Richards told the gathering in a room at the Anglican Cathedral, citing a $10 million consultancy fee for the hospital redevelopment.

“To have something off the balance sheets, this is the only show in town,” he replied to a question from the audience, saying the only viable deal was one that would be financed over time by usage of the airport rather than government funding.

“We didn’t have the money to do it,” he said.

So far, a guaranteed revenue level for the new terminal proposed for LF Wade International Airport remains a work in progress.

“The actual numbers are subject to current negotiations,” Mr Richards said, calling a forecast of future air traffic the most critical aspect.

“Everybody likes to make fun of me for ‘fuzzy numbers’ — this is a forecast,” he said. “But the guarantee will be a hard number.”

Steve Nackan, the president of Aecon — the subcontractor to Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) — estimated that a guaranteed revenue would be available by the early summer of next year.

“The hope is that the revenue will always exceed what we think will be the guaranteed revenue,” Mr Nackan added.

Asked if the Government would have to bail out the new airport if the project “failed”, Mr Richards said: “The Government of Bermuda will not have to bail this out — period.”

The project has been subjected to “a great deal of noise and disinformation”, he told the meeting.

The proposal using CCC and Aecon is predicted to cost $249 million and take 40 months to construct, with Aecon as the major shareholder of a special purpose company to build the terminal and have a concession agreement to operate it for the next 30 years.

Present airport staff and management will be retained, with some of them going to a special purpose company to run the facility, and regulated by the Government — replacing the Department of Airport Operations with an “airport quango”.