The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas must target a “high 70s-80 percent score” on its next aviation safety audit and match the world’s best, an attorney said yesterday, adding: “We’ve made great strides in a short span of time.”

Llewellyn Boyer-Cartwright, an aviation specialist who has his own legal practice, Harley James, said the results from the latest International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) inspection “provide the foundation” for The Bahamas to further enhance its oversight and regulatory regime and make the sector increasingly attractive for investors.

ICAO data confirmed The Bahamas has effectively “doubled its score” from 2017, when it was found to have only properly implemented 32 percent of the “critical elements of a safety oversight system”, to now just over 32 percent. Four out of the eight areas in which this nation was assessed, namely legislation; organisation; airworthiness; and accident and investigation exceeded the global average coming in with marks between 80 percent to just over 90 percent.

The Aircraft Accident and Investigation Authority (AAIA), in particular, said in a website statement. “The AAIA, due to its establishment of the authority and creation of legislation, regulations, guidance materials, procedures and processes, and retention of qualified personnel found lacking in the 2017 audit, compliance scores increased from that obtained in 2017 of 13.59 percent to the 2021 scores of 90.29 percent.”

However, the late 2021 ICAO audit found that The Bahamas was still lacking - and lagging - in several areas. In particular, it only achieved a score of just over 40 percent on “operations” while it was slightly over 50 percent for licensing. Aerodromes, too, were just above 40 percent, while air navigation services fared slightly better at around 60 percent. All four areas, though, were below the global ICAO average.

Mr Boyer-Cartwright, striking a positive tone, said of the ICAO audit rankings: “We doubled our score. Can you imagine, hopefully, five years from now we should be able to constantly improve that score again. If we could get into the high 70 percents-80 percent we’re up there with some of the best systems. There’s no reason why we should not strive for that.

“The advantage or benefit [of The Bahamas doubling its score] is that one, we’re sending a message that we’re actually taking steps to improve the overall standing of aviation in the country. And we can also say the region. It’s providing a foundation in which to continue to improve. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it can really continue to benefit the country. Who wants to operate in a jurisdiction where they think it’s lacking in two or three areas.

“We’ve come a very long way in a short span of time. I think as long as we continue on this course, and the commitment from the Government is there, we can only improve. I think with the last three pieces of legislation passed in 2021 it moved us much further ahead. There’s no doubt about that. The previous legislation, although well-intended, was still lacking and what we now have in place is a great improvement.”

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. All three reforms were passed into law in early 2021 to give The Bahamas a chance to bed-in the necessary improvements ahead of the November/December audit by ICAO.