From Caribbean News Now

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao — In 2011, a safety assessment audit was completed of the Curacao Civil Aviation Authority (CCAA) by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to assess CCAA’s safety oversight capabilities. This was after the FAA indicated that Curacao, as a new country, needed to be inspected again.

It was discovered during the audit that Curacao does not meet the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards and therefore was given an International Aviation Safety Assessments (IASA) Category 2 rating.

Since St Maarten and Curacao share the same aircraft registry prefix (PJ), St Maarten’s Civil Aviation Authority was also downgraded to Category 2.

The downgrade to Category 2 came with the consequence that airlines from both St Maarten and Curacao cannot initiate new air services to US territories.

In August, 2013, minister of traffic and transportation Earl Balborda hired Oscar Derby from Jamaica to help Curacao’s aviation to regain Category 1. Almost a year-and-a-half later, the CCAA still has not submitted any regulations to parliament for approval. Various stakeholders in the aviation sector are wondering what is going in the CCAA and when Derby, or the responsible minister will report on what the progress is in this respect.

Meanwhile, in St Maarten, the caretaker minister with responsibility for aviation, Ted Richardson, recently approved eight aviation ministerial regulations that will assist St Maarten regain Category 1 status.

These documents form part of the St Maarten Civil Aviation Regulations, which totals 12, of which 10 were submitted for approval.

The regulations are: Personnel and Licensing part 2&3, Aircraft Registration and Marketing Part 4, Approved Maintenance Organization part 6, Operations and Aircraft Equipment Part 7 & 8, Air Operator Certification and Administration Part 9, Commercial Air Transport by Foreign Air Operators within St Maarten Part 10, Aerial Work Part 11 and Rescue and Fire Fighting Services Part 12.

General policies, procedures and practices part 1 will be submitted at a later date and Airworthiness Part 5 is already in force.

The regulations are prepared by the Aviation Section in collaboration with the Department of Legal Affairs and a consultant. The advice for approval to the minister is prepared by the Aviation Section.

After the minister has signed the regulations, they are sent to the ombudsman for screening, which takes a period of six weeks before they enter into force.

The ombudsman makes sure that the regulations do not contradict the constitution of St Maarten.

The estimated date for official entry into force of the regulations is January 10, 2015.

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-St-Maarten-approves-aviation-regulations,-Curacao-none-yet-24138.html

IMAGE: www.mtha-aviation.co.za