Above: Haiti President Michel Martelly (Photo: OP)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti President Michel Martelly visited Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport Thursday to assess the progress of the second phase of the facility’s renovation project.

Martelly expressed his “satisfaction” with the quality of the work; the second phase is set for completion in July.

“The airport is the image of the country,” he said. “This is the first place that welcomes tourists. It must be worthy of the promotion we are doing to sell the country’s image.”

According to the President, Haiti’s government envisions areas near the airport for the eventual construction of hotels and new car parks.

Martelly also met with the airports so-called “red cap” workers, the beneficiaries of a pilot project he launched last month that distributes a health insurance card to 300 red caps from Toussaint Louverture.

He officially handed over the keys to a $92,000 bus to the airport workers during his visit.

Martelly said such social programmes were an integral part of the country’s self-promotion; if Haiti wants to project a different image of the country, it must offer help to its underprivileged citizens, he said.

The airport’s second phase will launch with a cultural event called the “Carnival of Flowers.”