George Town, Grand Cayman, (March, 2014) –The Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands (CAACI) hosted a one day seminar on Thursday, 27th February, on the CI Aircraft Registry that focused on the legislative requirements and processes concerned with registering an aircraft in the Cayman Islands . The seminar and training session was held at the Brasserie Conference room, Cricket Square and attracted attendees from most of the large law firms and corporate management companies, financial firms and representatives of other statutory authorities and Government departments.

The Hon. Wayne Panton, Minister of Financial Services, Commerce & Environment offered opening remarks that reflected on the synergies between the aircraft registry and the local financial services industry and the credible regulatory oversight of the CAACI. He also highlighted the important role of the CAACI and its valuable revenue contributions to the Cayman Islands Government.

Mr. Richard Smith, Director-General, commenced the seminar presentations with a brief overview on the history of international civil aviation and the enabling legislation that governs aviation in the Cayman Islands. This was followed with presentations by Mrs. Jane Panton, Director of Finance & Compliance, and Mr. David Biehn, Director of Air Safety Regulation, who walked the attendees through very detailed information on the processes and procedures associated with registering an aircraft in the Cayman Islands.

Mr. Smith commented, “our partners in the local legal and financial industries are vitally important to the CI Aircraft Registry as they interact and often help influence decisions on what jurisdiction an aircraft is to be registered in,” he continued, “at the CAACI we have cultivated a mutually beneficial relationship with this segment of the Cayman economy that we will continue developing, as we sustain our leadership position in the global aircraft registry business.”

The seminar was also used to introduce the CAACI’s electronic data management portal “VP-C Online”, a web based tool available 24/7/365 to facilitate aircraft operators and applicants to the CI Aircraft Registry, which was developed by Brac Informatics Centre (BIC) for the CAACI. Mrs. Nancy Ewing, President and CEO of BIC, and Mr. Steve Scott, Flight Operations Manager, gave an informative presentation on VP-C Online. The day ended with an interactive ‘think tank’ session led by Ms. Sherice Arman of Maples and Calder with a supporting panel from the CAACI executive team. Topics for this session included offshore Air Operators Certificates (AOCs), the Cape Town Convention, new requirements of the Air Navigation (Overseas Territories) Order AN(OT)O 2013; future plans for the registry and its targeted conservative growths in key markets, as well as a look at emerging markets in different regions all formed thought provoking discussion points.

Background info to augment:

The CAACI has full designation for safety oversight as a UK OT, and is one of only two OTs to enjoy such delegation. The CAACI is responsible for both financial and economic regulation of the Cayman aviation industry. 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 into the USA, i.e, Cayman Airways, Ltd. The requirement for such rating lies with the CAACI being assessed as having technically qualified and highly experienced staff to effectively oversee the aviation industry in accordance with established standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).