CARICOM Airways will be back in the skies soon.
St. Lucia’s Attorney General Laurenzo Rudolph Francis has said that the aviation dispute over landing rights for the St. Lucia-registered airline has been resolved and a statement to that effect is expected to be released by the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCAA), according to a Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) report.
Francis told CMC that he accompanied Tourism Minister Allan Chastanet to Antigua and Barbuda for talks on the issue last week and “while not providing details of the agreement, indicated that the ECCAA has acted hastily in calling for the grounding of CARICOM Airways”.
“We have been able to amicably resolve the matter following our talks last week and I am happy to be in a position to help clear up the legal ramifications involved in what is in fact a complicated issue,” Francis said.
“The matter with ECCAA was primarily a legal one and the outcome of the talks suggested that the regional body acted prematurely in grounding the carrier as they did not have any legal basis.
“As Attorney General I considered it my duty to assist the Minister of Tourism and Government in general in this matter and I can assure you that it was very successfully resolved,” Francis added.
According to reports, Chastanet had threatened to ground two Vincentian carriers operating in St. Lucia unless authorities in St. Vicent and the Grenadines allowed the St. Lucia-based CARICOM Airways to land there under a reciprocal CARICOM arrangement.
However, in a recent ruling the ECCAA announced that CARICOM Airways was operating illegally, and has ordered the carrier to immediately discontinue its operations within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
But according to the CMC, Francis said he expects the carrier to resume flying shortly.
“We intend giving CARICOM Airways as much support as possible in keeping with our long term goals of making St, Lucia a hub for tourism development and travel within the region, that essentially is our interest,” Francis said.
stupes…….joy ride hapenning still…..at least i will get mny ticket to america cheaper i hope….
These airlines don’t faze Liat……..Liat will fly when they come and long after they gone…Just ask well funded Caribbean Star……….(They had to merge with Liat not the other way around)
And who fund LIAT?
What is the bottom line ? We in Dominica need improved, more and cheaper air access if we are to generate more tourism dollars and foster Caribbean integration. It is possible that a foreign registered aircraft say “P” or “N” registered operate into and out of the OECS without an AOC from ECCA. Also even if its a twelve seater, it will be a tremendous help. Working with ECCA can only make the situation better and naturally there will be benefits from having the blessings of ECCA
Where ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise. Certainly, the DLP Govt. did not conduct the necessary background check as it pertains to CARICOM Airlines getting the necessary permission from ECCAA. There was an aviation dispute. That’s a fact. If there were no problems, no talks would be held on the issue.
St. Lucia’s attorney himself indicated that it was a COMPLICATED issue. Talks were held and the matter has been resolved. What do you all understand by a RESOLUTION of an issue? If there were no problems, would there be any matter to RESOLVE? The English language is not always easy to understand and many people therefore TAKE BARLEY FOR RICE in their ignorance and analysis of issues. Note well, ignorance does not mean you all are fools. It simply means many times most do not understand or lack knowledge of the issue at hand. Nobody on earth knows everything about everything.
Therefore those who expressed their feelings about inefficiencies by Govt, and the Minister responsible for aviation, regarding lack of due diligence or verifying whether CARICOM Airlines had the necessary permission from ECCAA to operate to and from Dominica, are right to do so. Are Dominicans wrong or mad to express their concerns about the problems with NIGHT LANDING into Melville Hall airport? Are Dominicans crazy to speak about that bogus show , using people’s money for a useless inaugural night landing nonsense? What was the outcome of that illegal night flight when everything had not been in place? Shouldn’t Dominicans TALK about that ill-planned activity especially seeing Skerritt staying on land while others were used as sacrificial lambs on that flight?
Oh shut up, please!!!!!!!!
Where ignorance is BLISS ’tis FOLLY to BE WISE. I will never disrespect you by telling you to shut up. The constitution gives everyone the RIGHT to express his or her opinions. I exercise my RIGHTS so to do without FAIL or FEAR. Are you mentally deranged? I advise you to seek some PSYCHIATRIC HELP. I realize that you can’t deal with the contents of my blog. The points and questions raised is a thorn in your side. So continue to drown yourself in ignorance.
Lack of cheap flights is what’s hampering Dominica’s Tourism Industry and I think that this is going to be a catalyst…so off we go. I think Chastanet has good intentions for the OECS and he’s been in tourism forever so he knows what he’s doing, one of the plans is to market OECS tourism as one.
BTW…Down with ALBA.
The matter was resolved – great. That in no way means that the Dominican authorities are not culpable. Proper due diligence would have required that they contact ECCAA, the organisation responsible for regulating civil aviation activities within the OECS, especially given the sentiments expressed by the PM of SVG on the matter. It also would have required that the Dominican authorities hold off until the go ahead was received from that regulatory body. That would have saved the embarrasment as it was indeed an embarrassment to have the aircraft grounded so soon after its commencement of operations in Dominica. Please stop this politicking: its tiring those of us who just want to deal with issues and are neither BLUE or RED.
You seem to be reading from the side, whoever you are. Read and stop bashing government. shate man!!!!
people read between the lines. if all was well they should have started flying immediately.. they are trying to get things rectified and thats why they’ll start shortly and not immediately..they have to meet eccaa standards.
We will see the outcome of this agreement soon. If it mean more flights with people into Dominica it is all good – All benefits. But again we should not be jumping hoorray over getting a 12 seater to land in D/ca. That is minimal. St.Lucia is doing us a favour, they do not want our people to flock their doors. They have thousands of tourist coming every day, their economy is booming, the farmers are doing excellent because they can sell produce to the hotels and other business places while we fighting over a 12 seater twin engine plane making flights to canefield. WE SICK!! We do not know what is development, we have reach a height of ignorance and stupidity where the crumps we get we think is HUGE PROOGRESS ….Our sister country just trying to help because they realise we are lost and at this time anything will do – we have no standard and care for none…Thanks St.lucia, better u than our greedy, self enriching ministers….
u dominicans are just low minded and stupid
Ungrateful. Just be thankful. And who says that the Saint Lucian people are doing great? Haven’t you heard what hurricane Tomas did to the country. So many people without homes and farmers lost everything. Get your facts straight before you speak. Stupes!!!
THERE IS A SAYING THAT “HURRY MAN EAT RAW BEEF*
This is for members of the opposition, too preser to make a comment.
now it has blown up in your faces like ….. take it
see who is laughing now
this should teach all you a lesson, make positive comments and try to work with the DLP, and not against them
you all are a real embarrasment to the people of Dominica.
The DLP has laid out constructive plans and projects for 2011. what has the uwp has to offer, more criticsm, more negativity more opposition and more division what a bloody waste
You sounding like this is a massive victory for the DLP. To me this is a major defeat and embarrasment. This is NOT an 80 seater. It is just a 12 seater that will land at Cainefield. I don’t see what you all are jumping about. Do you think that’s going to change anything? The government is so short sighted and busy to welcome anything those other islands have rejected that they don’t mind putting the lives of people at risk on those little twin engines planes. Illegality is not a problem for you all because our pm is illegal and all you don’t want people to talk. Let’s do things the right way!
Besides the illegality problem I find that’s a good thing cause I hate coming into Dominica via Marigot. It is just too damn far. Now I have a choice.
you are jhust like your name a follower and not a leader with any real insight.
what i said remains. uwp are are an embarrasment to the people of DA.
Hector John needs to Apologise to the country for that nonsense he wrote earlier.
thats the problem with this headless opposition they cant seem to understand that its not every issue they need to comment on and its not always the fault of the Ruling party when things go wrong.
APPOLOGISE FOR WHAT??? EVERYTHING HE SAID WAS TRUE AND RIGHT ON THE MONEY.
IS CARICOM AIRWAYS NOT GROUND BY THE ECCAA? IF NOT WHY DID CHASTENET AND THE A.G FOR ST LUCIA HAVE TO TRAVEL TO ANTIGUA TO MEET WITH THE ECCAA TO GET MATTERS RESOLVED?
HE MADE STATEMENTS BASED ON THE FACTS AS THEY WERE PRESENTED AND HAVE NOTHING TO APPOLOGISE FOR.
what’s the dude name?spaghetti john? he talks too much .At school in the states u did the same and it always put u in trouble.Like any firm there gonna be ups and downs. but all u too is look for the downs. not sure if ur head that is to big on ur body it stays down all the time. look them people sort out there mess. now u maybe feel so f… up dam u .
RESOLVED……. MEANS IF EVERYTHING WAS IN ORDER THEIR WOLD BE NOTHING TO BE RESOLVED.
so true… a matter was ‘resolved’ but nothing was wrong … lmao…
Regional Integration is suppose to be a means of attaining economic prosperity and political independence for the nations and the people of the region. I use to like hearing Ralph Gonsalves talk about the integration movement but it’s action which speak louder than words.
I fail to comprehend how we are suppose to move noticeably foward as a region when our leaders fail to make consistent decisions which connect us further. St. Lucia received an AOC from Suriname and from the get go Ralph Gonsalves was against letting the carrier operate within his country and he got his boys in ECCAA to support him. This was a blatant disreagard of a CARICOM agreement.
If we cannot achieve smooth travel connections between the islands, one of the most basic forms of integration how can we even think of forming more complex links. It’s time for CARICOM to stop being a reason for politicians and bureaucrats to go to costly meetings at the expense of tax payers just to take nice pictures, and release never to be honored communiques, and start being an institution of action and change.
Regional Integration is important to us, but proper protocol must be followed. We have a regional body with the responsibility of overseeing air travel, so before any “air line” can be functional, this regional body must be properly informed and all necessary procedures and documentation must be in place. I know for a fact that the proper procedures were not followed, therefore Prime Minister of SVG Ralph Gonsalves was correct in objecting as he did.
The matter would have gone straight to the CCJ and the St.Vincent government and the ECCAA would lose Big Time.We in Dominica like to talk … but as I said Suriman is now part of Caricom and has the legal right to Cabotage througtout the region with their own AOC.
hey fairplay, could you please shed some light here on the matter. I would genuinely like to know, who governs/regulate civil aviation in the region. because here it is that one time we are hearing that’s it’s the ECCAA then we are hearing about AOC and suriname. I would want to believe that there should be one standard across the board.
Thanks.
What Fairplay ?? should be called no-sense. If these 7/8 seaters “airline” were legit there would not have to be any “taking care of compliance issues”, or getting “matters resolved” in Antigua. The fact remains that the proper protocols were not followed so PM Ralph Gonsalves and the ECCAA were correct in their actions. By the way why are Dominicans jumping up about this, is it that getting a little bit of crumbs is better that not getting a slice of the bread.
Spaggs and (blue) company, who’s the IDIOT now? Checked out the latest story? guess the Airline wasn’t illegal after all and will soon be in the skies. Your celebrations were a bit premature, and so will be your continued nonsense about an illegal PM
The UwP supported airline that went down over Melleville Hall was suppose to help us too and what happened? From what I am reading this airline is for st Lucia’s continuos and thriving tourism. I’m not sure why we are here celebrating something that is off no bennifit to us.
on again ………… off again ………….. ARE THESE GUYS SAFE???
CAN THEY AFFORD TO SERVICE THOSE KITES?
hhhmmm well let’s watch what happening,,,can’t be quick to celebrate,,,everything has to be done right n safely manner,,,,
In your face LIAT.
get real caricom airways can’t compete with liat.it will go bankrupt trying to. a 7 seater vs a 50 seater do the maths. caricom airways have to complete 14 flights every time liat does one at full capacity to match liats loads. check the amount of landing fees and fuel it will require. don’t mention every 100 landings they have to go out for maintainance.. guess they’ll see the light in due time.
7 seaters can’t carry many bags which means passengers get to their destination with no bags,the very same thing you guys make so much noise with liat for.
Nice happy they back on track……
Hector John, I need you to make a statement …please be of some leadership here
Show them fellas how we in the uwp do it