North Eleuthera's Runway Has Three Finish Lines, and Harbour Island Is Only at the First

For most of October, the work at North Eleuthera International Airport happened at night. As The Tribune reported on October 7, paving crews were set to work through the night until around 4 a.m. so the airport could stay open, and the asphalt had to be brought up from southern Eleuthera. On October 21, The Tribune reported that Minister of Works and Family Island Affairs Clay Sweeting expected the resurfacing to wrap up by the end of that week, weather permitting. He said the runway should be ready for use the following week, which is this week, if everything went to plan.

Anyone who crosses from Briland to the ELH dock and flies on to Nassau is dealing with three separate timelines. The repaved strip is the first and nearest. The other two decide whether the route comes back to what it was before October 2.

The three clocks, in order

1. The emergency resurfacing. The Ministry of Works laid out the scope in an October 2 statement reported by The Nassau Guardian. The work covers milling and resurfacing the central section of the runway, repairing isolated defective areas, and renewing the pavement markings. Bahamas Striping Group of Companies is doing the work. On October 7, Sweeting estimated about 12 days of paving. By October 21, repairs had been underway for nearly two weeks.
2. The cure. Bahamas Striping general manager Melanie Roach has said the new asphalt needs 30 days to cure. Only after that can the company come back and apply markings that meet Civil Aviation Authority requirements. No date has been announced for that striping. Counting 30 days from the late-October finish that was forecast puts it around late November at the earliest.
3. The permanent rebuild. The ministry's statement, as the Guardian reported it, says the emergency work "do[es] not constitute" the full rehabilitation of the runway. That is a separate project financed through the Inter-American Development Bank. Bids were still being evaluated as of October 21, and no completion date has been given.

The resurfacing is the only one of the three with an announced target date. The airport stayed open throughout the work, though it closed around 5 p.m. each day so crews could get on the runway. Anyone planning a late-afternoon arrival this week should check the airport's current hours before booking, rather than assuming the evening window has come back.

How much of the route went quiet

The airline schedule changed more than the runway did. Western Air started flying between New Providence and North Eleuthera on February 23, 2024. Within months, because of demand, it was flying daily except Tuesdays. Its last scheduled flight into ELH was Friday, October 2.

When that suspension started, former North Eleuthera MP Rickey Mackey told The Tribune that Southern Air was the only carrier still flying daily to North Eleuthera, with a maximum of 15 passengers per flight. Pineapple Air had already dropped its service, and Bahamasair was flying in at least once a week. The timing made the gap obvious. Harbour Island Homecoming ran October 8 to 12, just days after the suspension began. Javaughn Rolle, chairman of the North for the Harbour Island Commonage Committee, told the paper the community had been taken aback by the decision. He added that residents understood why the runway needed fixing, since they had wanted the airport improved too.

What Western Air's return actually depends on

Western Air has tied its return to the repairs themselves. Its president and CEO, Sherrexcia "Rexy" Rolle, gave The Tribune the airline's reasons on September 30:

"The runway has a lot of uneven surfaces. As a result, they experience very rough take-offs and landings because the runway is sunken in different places."

She could not say how long the suspension would last and tied it to the runway problems being fixed. As of October 21, Western Air had not flown to North Eleuthera since October 2, and it had not given a restart date. The airline has done this before, and that offers some reassurance. In 2024 it suspended flights to New Bight, Cat Island, over unsafe runway conditions and resumed once the potholes there were repaired. That precedent points to a return once the surface is sound. Until Western Air announces it, though, Briland's options for reaching Nassau are the ones in the table below.

Passengers who already held Western Air tickets for the suspended route can request a refund by email, and the tickets remain valid for one year.

Getting to Nassau in the meantime

Southern Air's published travel guide lists those three daily rotations. The 4:30 p.m. return from ELH is close to the 5 p.m. closure the ministry used during the repairs, so ask the airline whether that flight is running before relying on it. The Bahamas Ferries schedule is the one option that skips the runway entirely, as long as the day fits. It lists child fares of $103 one way and $185 round trip, and it says all rates include VAT and may change without notice. Bahamasair's Nassau to Eleuthera page does not say which of the island's airports each daily flight uses, so check the airport code when you book.

Air travelers still need the boat between the ELH dock and Harbour Island. The Bahamas tourism island-hopping directory lists Edney Higgs running daily between North Eleuthera, Harbour Island and Spanish Wells from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sea Fever II from 5:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The directory is undated, so call the operators to confirm the hours. None of the schedules above should be treated as fixed until the operator confirms them for your travel date.

The permanent runway is further off than the old promises suggested

The third clock has run slowest. The October 7 Tribune report recalled that in 2024, Chester Cooper, speaking as deputy prime minister, called the airport's problems "completely embarrassing" at a time when Eleuthera was setting visitor records. He later said $55 million from the Saudi Fund for Development had not been drawn down because the process was slow and bureaucratic, that alternative funding had been secured, and that completion was expected in 2026. With 2026 now in its last ten weeks, the airside bids are still at the evaluation stage. Once evaluated, they go to the IDB for its no-objection process, and no contractor has been named.

Its scope is much larger than this month's patch. According to the ministry statement carried by The Nassau Guardian, the IDB-financed project covers full rehabilitation and resurfacing of the runway, taxiway and apron pavements, including the base layers underneath. It also adds new airfield ground lighting and approach lighting, drainage improvements, signage and markings, and new security fencing with the electrical work that goes with it. Sweeting has described a new, longer runway and an apron big enough for larger aircraft, which would also serve a planned airport development farther east.

That eastern development is on its own track. In August 2025, Our News reported that Island Airport Development Partners, a consortium of Phoenix Infrastructure, Plenary Americas and AvPort, was developing a new terminal. Construction was scheduled to start in October 2025, with completion targeted for the third quarter of 2026. The terminal and the airside works are separate projects, run by different parties and on different timelines.

A resurfaced runway should be back in use this week if the October 21 forecast held. Compliant markings follow about a month after the paving ends. The permanent runway arrives after a contract that has not been awarded yet. Western Air's return sits outside all three clocks, and it will come whenever the airline judges the surface good enough. Through all of it, ELH remains the main gateway for visitors heading to Harbour Island and the communities nearby.

If you own on Harbour Island or North Eleuthera and are fitting arrivals, guests or a closing around this season's flight schedule, Rolle Realty Group is glad to help you plan a calendar that works with the timetable as it stands. Contact us for a private conversation.