The Bishop government began constructing the Point Salines International Airport with the help of the United Kingdom, Cuba, Libya, Algeria, and other nations. The British government proposed the airport in 1954 when Grenada was still a British colony. Canadians designed it, the British government underwrote it, and a London firm built it. The U.S. government accused Grenada of constructing facilities to aid a Soviet-Cuban military buildup in the Caribbean. The accusation was based on the fact that the new airport's runway would be able to accommodate the largest Soviet aircraft, such as the An-12, An-22, and An-124. Such a facility, according to the U.S., would enhance the Soviet and Cuban transportation of weapons to Central American insurgents and expand Soviet regional influence. Bishop's government claimed that the airport was built to handle commercial aircraft carrying tourists, pointing out that such jets could not land at Pearls Airport with its runway on the island's north end, and that Pearls could not be expanded because its runway abutted a mountain on one side and the ocean on the other.
The Bishop government began constructing the Point Salines International Airport with the help of the United Kingdom, Cuba, Libya, Algeria, and other nations. The British government proposed the airport in 1954 when Grenada was still a British colony. Canadians designed it, the British government underwrote it, and a London firm built it. The US. government accused Grenada of constructing facilities to aid a Soviet-Cuban military buildup in the Caribbean. The accusation was based on the fact that the new airport's runway would be able to accommodate the largest Soviet aircraft, such as the An-12, An-22, and An-124. Such a facility, according to the U.S., would enhance the Soviet and Cuban transportation of weapons to Central American insurgents and expand Soviet regional influence. Bishop's government claimed that the airport was built to handle commercial aircraft carrying tourists, pointing out that such jets could not land at P.earls Airport with its runway on the island's north end, and that Pearls could not be expanded because its runway abutted a mountain on one side and the ocean on the other.