Minister of Economic & Tourism Affairs, Transportation & Telecommunications Franklin Meyers, says he hopes to sign a cooperation agreement and protocol with Curacao concerning Civil Aviation services by mid-December. The legal staff of both governments will now come together to work out the details of the concept agreement.
This was the result of his working visit to Curacao last week.
Minister Franklin Meyers also met with the Curacao Civil Aviation Department last week for the purpose of obtaining clarity pertaining to which part of the responsibilities that the aforementioned authority will execute as well as what Sint Maarten will execute.
The concept cooperation agreement and the terms and conditions were also discussed at length.
A meeting was held with representatives of the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA) for the Caribbean region, to discuss the possibilities of the UK CAA assisting the Sint Maarten Civil Aviation Authority.
Areas identified are capacity strengthening, execution of inspections, policy and legislative matters among other issues. Follow-up meetings are planned to see how the UK CAA can assist Sint Maarten despite the differences of language and legislation.
The UK CAA currently executes various civil aviation tasks and responsibilities for England in their Overseas Countries & Territories (OCT’s) such as Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos Islands, Anguilla, and Montserrat.
"We want to continue to assure the airlines and other stakeholders that our air traffic control authority is currently and will continue to operate and function according to international aviation treaties in order to ensure an efficient management of airspace in the North Eastern Caribbean," Minister of Economic Affairs Meyers said on Sunday.