OECS Heads of Government, including Dominica, have agreed on several decisions to reclassify the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCAA) to its category 1 rating.
The decision was taken following a special meeting held last week. Dominica’s Ambassador for CARICOM, Felix Gregoire, represented Dominica and the meeting was chaired by Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne.
The meeting was held following a decision by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US, to downgrade the authority yet again because “it does not comply with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards”.
The authority has, however, denied claims that its policies call into question the safety and security of the region’s airports and airlines and said that the outstanding matters are regulatory issues which heads of government seemed keen on rectifying in the shortest time.
Of the fourteen (14) key recommendations outlined by the FAA, the ECCAA said it had been able to quickly address and implement eleven (11) of the suggested adjustments.
The authority said in a press statement that the remaining three (3) suggestions required legislative changes from each Member State and, although underway, were not yet completed at the time of this recent assessment.
It also noted that this change in status will not affect the day-to-day running of regional airports and airlines.
The Meeting took several more decisions that addressed areas such as Sustainable Financing of the ECCAA, Resolution of Outstanding Regulatory Matters, Administrative and Operational Strengthening of the ECCAA and joint Strategic Diplomatic Outreach.
The amendment of legislation that empowers the ECCAA Director-General to develop, issue, and revise operating regulations were among the top recommendations made.
The Meeting mandated that the OECS Commission serve as the implementing body on these matters to ensure that resolution is timely and Heads are continuously informed on the progress.
Member States to the ECCAA have also agreed to settle all arrears to the institution and to keep payments current.
Heads of Government considered the recommendation to adopt the payment model of Antigua and Barbuda by dedicating assignment of airport or other fees towards subvention payments.
The Authority has also agreed to the implementation of a diplomatic démarche in Washington to ensure an ongoing dialogue with the FAA and to facilitate a deeper understanding of the nuances within the organisation.
One of the weakest links in the OECS ECCA is Dominica. Dominica has failed miserably to pass the requisite legislation and to put in place the administrative and oversight protocols that would help ECCA sustain Category 1 status. It was predicted that once Dominica became a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), on their very first inspection of Dominica’s Civil Aviation legislative and administrative protocols and infrastructure, its deficiencies would come to the surface that would directly impact the status of ECCA. ICAO is not influenced or subjected to island government politics, bottom-line. ECCA may allow things to slide, that ICAO will not tolerate. Critical areas are oversight issues, the legislative and compliance to ICAO Annexes and standards. Whereas all the OECS counties have made tremendous progress in that regard Dominica has been lazily lagging behind. Dominica needs to step up and to do so quickly.
Dominica’s airport near Marigot does NOT comply with safety standards purely because of the lack of a hospital that could be reached in less than 20 minutes. When the airport was certified some years ago the hospital in Marigot was still operational. I wonder if our dear leader forgot to inform the relevant authorities that the hospital since has been eaten by termites. I wonder if the ECCAA is aware of this issue? Now we all know why Marigot gets a hospital again and don’t believe for one second it’s out of the goodness of the dictators heart. He was facing closure of the airport!!!
The proximity of a hospital is not so much of an issue as far as the standards and requirements for certification are concerned but lets go to Canefield Airport where cars and trucks are parked on the air side along the runway and under the windsock a clear infringement on the transitional slope of the runway and a clear impediment to the efficient operation of the windsock- now whereas ECCA may turn a blind eye to that ICAO will not. For example the windsock has to be collapsible in other words should an airplane drift away from the centre of the runaway and collide with the windsock the windsock should collapse a cement will not collapse rather the entire plane will collapse on the cement truck, is just pure madness .