Bahamas government signs an airspace agreement with US FAA

The government of Bahamas has signed an -Air Navigation Services Agreement with the United States Federal Aviation Administration - FAA, to allow the monitoring of the island's airspace for -ten years

Bahamas: The government of Bahamas has signed an -Air Navigation Services Agreement with the United States Federal Aviation Administration – FAA, to allow the monitoring of the island’s airspace for -ten years.

Dionisio D’Aguilar- Bahamas Tourism and Aviation Minister, stated, ” The island can collect up to US$350 million from overflight airlines across the period. The – FAA has been monitoring Bahamas airspace for some time, but there has never been a legal agreement.

Minister said that “The agreement concludes decades upon decades of talks between The Bahamas and the US about the supervision of the sovereign airspace of Bahamas”.

He added that “The monitoring would be done at no cost to Bahamas capital- Nassau, with the authorities, paying an annual – $80 000 fee to obtain data on airlines passing through – The Bahamas airspace. This data would help – Bahamas Air Navigation Services Authority -BANSA to collect overflight fees due to the country.”

The minister also asserted that before signing the agreement, the United State provided – air navigation services about 75 % of The Bahamas sovereign airspace, while Cuba island controlled the remainder.”

“The Bahamas has received not one penny from this agreement, and the money collected from the overflight fees would be used to establish – BANSA’s capacity so that one day our nation might be able to manage its own airspace, but Till then, the overflight fees charged by – The Bahamas would move the country toward purchasing the equipments and training the staff required to obtain such independence.”

He further concluded – “Based on the fact that the requirement of such air traffic control services brings a fee in almost all jurisdictions of the globe, on – May 1, 2021, all airspace users from Bahamian airports that land and take off and fly within the Bahamian airspace would now pay a fee of – $1 per arriving and departing passenger, adding a flat fee of – US$10 up to US$61 for each flight, depending on the maximum take-off weight of the aircraft,”