The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas “cannot afford” to have any further downgrade to the aviation industry’s global standing, airline operators have warned, and are hoping for a “marked improvement” this month.

Anthony K Hamilton, Southern Air’s director of administration, and president of the Bahamas Association of Air Transport Operators, told Tribune Business “the most critical thing for us” is to obtain an improved rating for the country’s civil aviation safety and oversight regime via an audit currently underway.

Officials from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) are presently in The Bahamas to carry out this assessment, with both the Government and aviation industry hoping to fare significantly better than the previous 2017 audit when this nation was found to have only properly implemented 32 percent of the “critical elements of a safety oversight system”.

Mr Hamilton said: “It’s going to be a most critical audit, particularly with the prior experience. We need to fare well with this. Giving consideration to the state of affairs with aviation locally and internationally, we cannot afford to have a downgrade. That’s the most critical thing for us; having the excellent end result with this audit.”

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation under the former Minnis administration, oversaw several regulatory reforms designed to address weaknesses exposed by the last ICAO audit. This included passage of the revised Civil Aviation Act, plus the Bahamas Air Navigation Services (BANS) Authority Act, which further separated regulator and operations by breaking out the air traffic controllers from the Civil Aviation Department.

Finally, the Civil Aviation Authority Act defined the Civil Aviation Authority’s organisational structure and set-up as the sector regulator, as well as “how it operates and codifying in law” the oversight functions it performed.

Mr Hamilton yesterday voiced optimism that The Bahamas “should not be anywhere near” 32 percent in the latest ICAO audit findings, but agreed that much depends on the “corrective action” taken by the Government and Civil Aviation Authority.

He also voiced concern over the loss of the late Michael Allen, the Authority’s former director-general, who he said had been “doing an excellent job to ensure we were on track for an excellent outcome” with ICAO. “I hope the team has kept it on track so we can have a result that will be most pleasing,” Mr Hamilton said.

“The part that aviation plays in our economy, if we are further downgraded it will not be good news for us. Like everything else we need to be in compliance. That’s vitally important. For the sake of all of us I hope we fare well, and not just better but a marked improvement in the end result. I would hope that as best an effort that could have been made would have been made for this thing.

“The very corrective action on the part of the authorities should augur well for us to be in a better position this time around. If we don’t, then we’re not going to have such a good experience in terms of how aviation moves forward from this juncture,” he continued.

“There are certain pre-requisites to ensure success, and one of the most critical is a successful audit from ICAO. It’s a major plank in the middle of it.”

A poor ICAO audit would adversely impact The Bahamas’ international aviation standing and how it is perceived by industry stakeholders, in addition to disrupting plans to launch an upgraded aircraft registry. The ICAO audit team last week meet Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation, to discuss their work and visit.

The last ICAO report revealed that The Bahamas had only properly implemented 32 percent of the “critical elements of a safety oversight system” for the aviation industry, with deficiencies found in all eight key areas.

The report, which effectively “downgraded” The Bahamas from 56.98 percent compliance pre-audit, found it had implemented just 2.5 percent of its aviation industry “surveillance”, and 15.97 percent of its “licensing, certification and authorisation”, obligations.

Similar low scores were achieved on the “resolution of safety issues”, where The Bahamas was found by ICAO’s team to be just 11.76 percent compliant, and on “qualified technical personnel”, where it gained a 36 percent ranking.

It fared better on the quality of its aviation legislation and “state systems and functions”, which both scored in the 50 percent range, and achieved its highest compliance rating of 61.06 percent for “specific operating regulations”.

Captain Charles Beneby, the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority’s former director-general, told Tribune Business at the time that the last ICAO audit had caught the regulator when it was “transitioning” from a government entity to a standalone supervisory authority.

As a result, he argued that the BCAA “didn’t have sufficient time” to show ICAO that The Bahamas had implemented more of the necessary safety standards than allowed for by the report.

Captain Beneby also said it was aiming to achieve a 65 percent “effective implementation” score during this audit, effectively ‘doubling’ the present 31.98 percent safety oversight compliance rating.