The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

The government is “vetting” the proposed contract that will formally launch the creation of a Bahamas aircraft registry, a Cabinet minister said yesterday.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, declined to commit to a timeline for when the deal with Aircraft Registry Group (ARG), the company selected to develop the registry, will be signed.

“The government has decided to explore an aircraft registry,” he said. “As you know we already have a maritime registry, and it is very much an income-producing enterprise for the Bahamas.

“We have gone through the ‘beauty contest’ in selecting a company. We have negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), and we are now completing the negotiations of a contract. We expect that company would come on board and begin to implement the necessary steps to launch an aircraft registry.”

Mr D’Aguilar added: “There has to be a very exhaustive, due diligence period. You have to get in proposals and vet all of them, and we are very close to signing the agreement. The office of the Attorney General is vetting the documents as we speak, and when that is finished we will be executing that document and begin the launch of an aircraft registry with Aviation Registry Group (ARG).”

Algernon Cargill, director of aviation, told Tribune Business earlier this year that a registry will be “well in place” by 2020 after confirming that the Government had signed an MOU with ARG.

ARG’s company website says it was established in 1995 as the first privately-managed Category-1 aircraft registry in the world, as rated by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Mr D’Aguilar, in earlier statements made to Tribune Business, touted the benefits of an aircraft registry He said: “An advantage is that it will cause focus to be brought to the civil aviation regulatory environment, enhancing it and making it top of class; world class in order to attract aircraft to our registry”

“It will create jobs in terms of inspections, maintenance and repairs. People will come here to have their planes inspected. It creates hangar storage, businesses for aircraft maintenance, inspections and the like, and has the advantage of creating employment opportunities. The benefits span the entire aviation sector.

“It’s important to pursue this for the reasons mentioned, but also to create this best in class sector that becomes a flag of choice.”