As a follow up to a story we ran on last night, today, the Belize Department of Civil Aviation confirmed to 7NEWS that a team from the Aeronautical Safety Agency for Central America, ACSA arrived in the country earlier this week. They have been reviewing the documents submitted by local airlines to acquire the air operators certificate. Once those are granted it should allow the resumption of flights to Guatemala.
But it’s not as simple as that; it is a lengthy, detailed and painstaking process, so don’t expect those flights to resume tomorrow. And contrary to what the CEO in the Ministry of Transport had told us, the BDCA says that so far, Maya Island Air, Astrum Helicopter Service and Tropic Air have delivered all of their completed documents. And as for which local carrier is the largest: we said it was Maya-Island because that company has the largest fleet, but a Tropic representative called us today and provided figures to show that it carries the most passengers.
But tomorrow it’s World Aviation Day, all that set-claiming and turf biting will be put aside – as the aviation industry and regulators hold a fair at the Marion Jones Sporting Complex. BDCA’s Airworthiness Inspector Brian Dominguez told us that on this special day: kids ride free.
Brian Dominguez,
“On the Seventh of December is designated as World Civil Aviation Day and as such we have I believe within the last two years have been keeping it up and we would like for it to be an annual thing. It is expected that we will be having some displays at the Marion Jones and hopefully a couple of rides that will be raffled for the carriers and kids to take flights around the circuit. We are hoping to have all the aircrafts that are basically featured within Belize. Agriculture, commercial and rotor wings also.”
The Civil Aviation Day fair starts at nine thirty this Friday at the Marion Jones Sporting Complex, school children and the general public are urged to make every effort to attend.
