There's speculation in the BVI News article's comments section about pay-offs to politicians from the wealthy landowners. While that could be a possibility, I think the explanation is likely to be less nefarious, though also corrosive to the BVI: the BVI government seems to be bent on catering to the wealthy at the expense of Belongers, sailors and relatively modest land-based guests. The airport expansion, which would only accommodate larger private jets, is another example of that. It seems like they aspire to be like Anguilla, as an example. There also could be the desire to rub elbows with the ultra-rich.

There's certainly lots of this type of thinking and behavior at work in the US on a much larger scale, where the middle class is being gutted in favor of the wealthy, so the BVI is hardly unique or distinctive in this. It does puzzle me, though, why Government seems to overlook what they already have - the world's greatest chartering "product." Maybe it's just not glamorous enough for them.

My $0.02.