George Town, Grand Cayman, (November 2012) – The Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands (CAACI) exhibited at the 65th annual National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) tradeshow, held at the Orange County Convention Centre (OCCC) in Orlando, Florida on October 30th – 1st November, 2012.The show closed with 25,150 registered attendees; slightly down from predicted numbers because of cancellations due to the passage of Hurricane Sandy and the devastating effects on the northeast. In addition, 1,073 exhibitors were on hand, occupying 4,361 booth spaces. NBAA 2012 also featured 105 aircraft on two separate static displays one right outdoors the Convention Centre and another larger static at Orlando Executive Airport, an additional four aircraft were shown inside the convention center.

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This was the largest delegation of Cayman Islands’ businesses jointly exhibiting with the CAACI at any tradeshow to date; including legal and financial representatives, Sherice Arman and Anna-Lise Bailey of Appleby Global, Marcus Cumber of Island Air (local FBO operator) and ground handler for the Cayman Islands, Brian Krug of Budget and Cayman Islands Tourism Association (CITA); and for the first time partnering with CAACI at NBAA were legal and financial entities, Anne Todd of Thorp Alberga, Benjamin Booker and Simon Dodkins of Caledonian Global Financial Services. Department of Tourism (DOT) donated giveaways and tourism materials.

Each year CAACI offers partnership opportunities with the local business community to offer a prize package for a raffle at NBAA and would like to thank this years’ sponsors: Cayman Airways Ltd, The Sunshine Suites Resort, and Budget Rent-A-Car Cayman. Ms. Mariya Stancheva of TrueNorth Avionics, Inc from Ottawa, Ontario was the lucky winner of this lovely prize package.

Director-General, Richard Smith commented, “We are pleased to see the growth in the aircraft registration business shown by the local financial and legal industry as well as our business partners from the tourism and travel sector.” He continued, “the commitment of our partners in attending these tradeshows with us, helps the CAACI deliver a comprehensive exhibition to the global audience reflecting on the quality offshore business opportunities the Cayman Islands offers.”

Also during NBAA, Shanghai Hawker Pacific Business Aviation Service Centre (SHPBASC) announced their certification by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands (CAACI) to perform maintenance repair work on Cayman Islands’ registered aircraft. The press conference was held at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) on Monday, 29th October 2012 and was attended by the Director-General P.H. Richard Smith and Deputy-Director General Nicoela McCoy of the CAACI.

Background info to augment:

The Civil Aviation Authority is the statutory body responsible for aviation regulatory (technical/safety and economic) oversight throughout the Cayman Islands and for aircraft registered in the Cayman Islands. The organization is headed by P.H. Richard Smith, the Director-General. The organization is comprised of four regulatory divisions: – the Air Safety Regulation division headed by Director David Biehn; the Air Navigation Services Regulation division headed by Director Alastair Robertson; the Economic Regulatory and Administration division headed by Nicoela McCoy; and the Finance & Compliance division headed by Jane Panton.

The CAACI has full designation for safety oversight as a UK Overseas Territory. In addition, the Cayman Islands is classified as Category 1 by the USA Federal Aviation Administration under their “International Aviation Safety Assessments” programme that evaluates a country’s civil aviation authority’s ability to effectively regulate its aviation industry. This rating enables commercial air transport operators registered in Cayman to conduct international air transport operations, i.e, Cayman Airways, Ltd. The requirement for such rating lies with the CAACI being assessed as having technically qualified and appropriate administrative staff to effectively oversee the aviation industry in accordance with established standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

For more on this go to:

http://www.nbaa.org/events/amc/2012/