A restored Fairmont Southampton Hotel will rescue Bermuda’s air transport and hotel accommodation lifeline, business figures and Skyport said today.

The joint statement came from several prominent executives along with Ken Hassard, the commercial director at Bermuda Skyport Corporation Limited, which operates LF Wade International Airport.

The resort, which is Bermuda’s largest, has been closed for three years and has a special development order application before the Department of Planning.

But additions to the site featured in the SDO, in particular an array of large residential units, have prompted a public outcry and calls for the plans to be scaled back.

Almost 40 objections have been lodged with the department ahead of the Wednesday deadline and a petition for a rethink of the SDO has racked up 4,269 signatures.

Business leaders did not specifically reference the SDO in the statement but emphasised the need for a revival in Bermuda’s hotel room inventory and languishing airlift to restore the island’s economy.

Mr Hassard said Skyport’s priority was to draw more air links to Bermuda, particularly to boost business tourism.

“The response we consistently get from major carriers is that the number of flights to Bermuda will only increase once the Fairmont Southampton – which was responsible for 25 per cent to 30 per cent of airlift to Bermuda – reopens,” he said.

That view was echoed by David Brown, head of a string of Bermuda-based international firms.

Mr Brown said it would be “difficult” for the island to grow or maintain its international business standing without “a significant increase in both hotel rooms and airlift”.

He added: “The reopening of the Fairmont Southampton will certainly help achieve this.”

Peter Hughes, founder and chief executive at Apex Group Ltd, a global financial services firm, said connectivity to the US for international businesses had been “seriously and negatively affected since the Fairmont Southampton has been closed – fewer tourism beds have translated into fewer flights available to Bermuda”.

“With more beds available through the renovated hotel and the proposed tourism and residential units, the potential for a significant conference business in Bermuda can be achieved.

“In addition, quite a few businesses want to come to Bermuda and add to the island’s economy but they can’t find sufficient housing for their executives.”

Mr Hughes said the shortfall meant that companies were opting to take their business to Cayman and other competitor jurisdictions.

Mitch Blaser, the founder and chief executive of Mosaic Insurance, said: “At the end of the day, time is money.

“Bermuda has lost a lot of direct flights, making business travel inefficient. It would be very disappointing if companies started considering taking their business elsewhere.”

Mr Blaser said investors in reopening the resort would deliver “airlift, jobs, new residents, a venue for all-important group travel”.

“If we believe in Bermuda, we need to believe in this.”