Saint Vincent and the Grenadines attended several important meetings in Miami, Florida, in the past few days.
Among those meetings was the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the European Communities and the ICAO Contracting States, at which SVG’s Minister of Tourism, Carlos James, was present.
James said that at this meeting, plans were set in motion to restore Category 1 status to the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCA).
In 2020 it was announced by the FAA that due to non-compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards, the OECS, assessed under the FAA’s International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program, ECCA was moved from a category one to a category two.
A category two IASA rating means either that laws or regulations lack the necessary requirements to oversee air carriers “in accordance with minimum international standards.”
Alternatively, it could have meant that an authority like ECCAA was lacking in areas such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record keeping, inspection procedures, or solving safety concerns.
In 2020, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said the downgrade was caused by an oversight by ECCAA and had nothing to do with the safety and security of airports in the region.
ECCAA oversees aviation security for Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
