Minister: Aviation Policy Consultative Conference
Speaking today [May 30] in the House of Assembly, Minister of Tourism Development and Transport Shawn Crockwell gave an overview of the Aviation Policy Consultative Conference which was held on May 13th in London.
The Minister attended the Conference along with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism Development & Transport and the Governor, who was present as part of his responsibility for oversight of the Department of Civil Aviation.
Minister Crockwell said the Conference was “well attended” and had “high level representation” including Governors, Ministers and senior Civil Servants from Overseas Territories and Crown Dependents.
The conference agenda covered a wide range of aviation items and matters that included Global Market Based Measures, Space Planes & Space Tourism, Airspace & Air Traffic Control Services, Bilateral Air Services Agreements, Airport Development/Extension, Development of Regulatory Competence and Offshore Aircraft Registry Policy.
The Minister’s full statement follows below:
Mr. Speaker, I wish to inform this Honourable House of the Aviation Policy Consultation Conference that I attended with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism Development & Transport.
The invitation to attend the second annual conference was received from the Department for Transport (DfT) in the United Kingdom. The conference was held on Tuesday, May 13th at the DfT headquarters in London. His Excellency the Governor also attended as part of his responsibility for oversight of the Department of Civil Aviation.
Mr. Speaker, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the statutory corporation which regulates and overseas all aspects of civil aviation in the UK. Air Safety Support International or (ASSI) is a wholly owned subsidiary company of CAA and the company’s primary objective is to provide a more unified system of civil aviation safety regulation in the United Kingdom Overseas Territories.
Under ASSI governance arrangements this conference is held to allow the UK, Overseas Territory (OT) and Crown Dependency (CD) governments to discuss aviation policy issues of mutual interest. The conference was well attended and had high level representation including Governors, Ministers and senior Civil Servants from Overseas Territories (OT) and Crown Dependents (CD).
Mr. Speaker, the conference agenda covered a wide range of aviation items and matters that included Global Market Based Measures, Space Planes & Space Tourism, Airspace & Air Traffic Control Services, Bilateral Air Services Agreements, Airport Development/Extension, Development of Regulatory Competence and Offshore Aircraft Registry Policy.
Mr. Speaker, there was robust discussion and debate on most topics. With regards to the
Global Market Based Measures, on 4th October 2013 the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) 38th Assembly considered global solutions to address emissions from international aviation and reached agreement to develop a global market-based measure (MBM). The agreement is considered an historic milestone for air transport and for the role of multilateralism in addressing global climate challenges. By reaching consensus to formulate the MBM agreement, the air transport industry became the only major industry with a multilateral global MBM agreement to govern future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. ICAO member States agreed to finalize a proposal for the MBM scheme for discussion in 2016, with implementation planned for 2020.Mr. Speaker, Space Planes & Space Tourism is becoming more prominent and this area of aviation is being led by “Virgin Galactic” the world’s first commercial spaceline which is owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. The company will primarily cater to extremely wealthy clients and plan to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourist, suborbital launches for space science missions and launches of small satellites.
The CAA work on this segment of the industry involves regulations and the safety of travelers as they will be classified as participants and not passengers for space flights. Some of the concerns include medical issues, the impact of space flight on the body and the types of aerodromes that will be required for space planes.
Mr. Speaker, the use and proliferation of Unmanned Aviation Vehicles (UAV) which is a small aircraft with no pilot onboard commonly referred to as a “Drone” was raised and highlighted as an area of concern. Most of the UAVs are fitted with cameras therefore there are concerns with data protection and while they are typically small in size weighing less than 2 kilograms the issue of safety will also need to be addressed. The operation of UAVs is unregulated in most jurisdictions however Bermuda was pleased to report the operation and use of UAVs is regulated in Bermuda and we have offered to assist other Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies with the development of policy in this area.
Mr. Speaker, the UK has confirmed that the Cape Town Treaty will be ratified in the autumn of 2014 and the treaty will be extended to Bermuda as requested. This Honourable House was previously informed of the Treaty benefits by the former Minister responsible for Civil Aviation the Honourable Dr. Grant Gibbons and how Bermuda is disadvantaged by not being a signatory to this treaty. In essence, the Convention seeks to provide financiers, creditors and lessors in the aviation market greater confidence when granting credit and in practice it has also had the benefit of lowering cost of financing due to decreased credit risk. The announcement of the UK’s timeline for ratification is welcomed news for Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, the Ministry of Tourism Development & Transport will continue with progressive development of our Aircraft Registry and will keep this Honourable House informed of our progress.
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Bermuda remains a leader and trailblazer within the Aviation industry despite the lack of aviation operations happening on island. Time to start our own airline and offer our travelers the Bermudian experience. Being held hostage at the whim of foreign airlines is not something we should remain comfortable with regardless of the bridge they have provided for us over the decades. We can enter the market and start taking our own travelers to the places they want to go.
Yes it makes $en$e
I agree , and if you give me about $500 million, I will make it happen for you.
Remember that to make a small fortune in Aviation, you need a large fortune to start with.
Indeed I couldn’t agree more! However, we’ve reached that level within our own commerce and economic survival to start the process. There are investors out there waiting for opportunities like these, but an unbiased dialogue must be held. The first thing that must be made clear is that the airline can NOT be government operated. Subsidized perhaps, but run by government would be a sure early demise of a way for us to secure our independence from foreign airlines..
Tricky however – I suppose you can do research into how the Bahamas and Cayman Islands operate and maintain their own airlines, including how much revenue or outreach they generate.
The main aspect to this of course when doing the analysis: Bahamas and Cayman don’t have the ‘off-season’ that Bermuda does.
but you Crockwell,why didnt you bring Virgin Airlines to Bermuda
Nobody can make or bring an Airline (Virgin) to Bermuda. Airlines will only operate to a destination if they can make a profit. They would do their number crunching and work out that it would be a loser. In the western aviation world, government ownership or sponsorship of airlines is not tolerated. Any sniff of government subsidy, the big boys run to thei lawyers and lengthy litigation follows – just look at the legal fight between Airbus and Boeing, regarding State subsidies. I can assure you all, that a Bermuda airline could not compete with the major carriers if they could not charge realistic air fares – and to be more precise everyone will start to see a gradual rise in air fares as the global flight crew shortage kicks in. Government and Airline sponsored pilot training schemes have vanished and it is only the kids of wealthy parents who can become pilots now. They cannot up the pilot retirement age much more, so be prepared for pilot shortage to kick in and bring reduced number of flights with competition for passenger seats – hence higher seat prices as the pilots will be lured by supersonic salaries.
Them not real virgins………if you do havem too many virgins….it attractum wrong elephant…..er …um…umum….element…that it…element…….not element from “periodic” table either!
The typical Virgin Airlines passenger cannot afford nor do they wish to spend the prices our hotels charge, so therefore don’t expect to see Virgin to be coming here anytime soon. That’s just the reality.
As far as a Bermuda Airline, the same way that our government offer relief for Jetblue, WestJet to compete against the other legacy airlines could very well work for a local run airline. Regardless of the challenges that a Bermuda airline would face, it is time for that dialogue to be held otherwise as “Yes 2″ has stated, the price of tickets will increase due to Pilot shortages and other ancillary factors. Cayman and Bahamas have airlines owned by the government and have been operating at a loss for quite some time, however, our location and hence business model would not be the same. We are more likely to be compared with the likes of Hawaiian Airlines considering their distance from any mainland. Yes they have an archipelago of islands, however, the need to get people to and from the islands of Hawaii shares a similar need as does Bermuda on a variety of levels.