access for handicapped passengers and obtained Doppler weather radar for the airport. In 2002 and 2003, the Bermuda International Airport placed highly in the International Air Transport Association's survey of overall passenger satisfaction, winning its North American Region both years and rising from ninth to fourth worldwide. Bermuda Transport Minister Brown and Howes celebrated the 2002 result by throwing an "Airport Appreciation Day" party for all airport employees and their families. More than persons attending the beachfront event were given souvenir T-shirts and pins proclaiming "Bermuda Airport – #1 in Service", along with food and live entertainment. After the $35,000 cost for the event was criticized by the opposition political party and The Royal Gazette, Howes released a statement addressing the controversy, saying: "Astute management in any large organization realizes that there is far more to motivating employees in the pursuit of excellence than a paycheck alone". There was an air traffic controller strike at the airport in September 2002 that had been brewing for two years. In December 2002 labor issues began with the airport firefighters, which erupted into a strike in February 2003. When Howes issued a statement saying that arrangements had been made to assure no interruption of service, the Royal Gazette lampooned him by showing the airport manager atop the control tower in a Boy Scout uniform controlling the airplanes with signal flags, with the ministers of transport and labour underneath. Howes was on Bermuda's Scout executive committee at the time. When Hurricane Fabian struck in 2003 and did over $15 million in damage to the airport, Howes had it operating again in three days. Before departing the airport on May 1, 2007, to take over his radio syndication company in Florida, Howes initiated the development, with HNTB, a 20-year master plan for the Bermuda International Airport, including future runway and airline terminal facilities. In his 2019 book, Whom Shall I Fear?, Brown provides a retrospective of his years in Bermuda government. He wrote that Howes' "leadership skills and managerial acumen ... proved his value to the airport and Bermuda's air service in myriad ways". Other interests Howes held a commercial pilot's license with instrument and multi-engine ratings. Other interests included scuba diving, playing the pipe organ, and photography. He had also been active in Scouting for many years, starting when he was a Cub Scout in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). While a Cub