We asked the Tourism Minister about the critical upgrades to the P.G.I.A. that are urgently necessary if his airlift dreams are to come true.

We've heard about a $264-million dollar master plan in a recent Cabinet brief.

We talked numbers with the Minister today as he told us exactly how much those upgrades are going to cost:

Anthony Mahler, Minister Of Tourism
"As you will see later today Mr. Enrique Hoare from the airport will be doing a presentation on the expansion and modernization of the airport. I've been advised that they are going to spend something like 250 million Belize over the next few years in expanding the. airport. If you go to the airport now you see a new road into the airport is being built already we had to help them acquire some land from B.E.L. to ensure the expansion process can happen. In terms of the airport in Ambergris Caye we believe that both Ambergris is the place for that to go and, to attract investors that would be able to do a PPE with us if necessary but that is on the horizon as well, the airport down South that is a private thing and we have had some preliminary discussions about it but it's too early to say anything about that."

And while those European flights won't be touching down anytime soon, the talk of the conference today was about overnight packages through U.S. hubs like Dallas, Miami and Atlanta that included overnight stays in those cities and allowed for European tourists to arrive in Belize jetlag free.

According to Aviation expert Nico Gurwicz those overnight packages would be a way to gauge the appetite from European markets.

Channel 7