Airspace agreement leads to trim of civil aviation budget

With the implementation of the historic air navigation services agreement with the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the monitoring of The Bahamas’ sovereign airspace, the government was able to trim more than $14 million from its annual aviation sector budget allocation in the 2021/2022 budget, though the general allocation to the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation (MOTA) ballooned by a substantial $34.5 million compared to the 2020/2021 budget.

The government allocated just $1 million to the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority and $1 million to the newly formed Bahamas Air Navigation Services Authority (BANSA).

In the 2020/2021 annual budget, Civil Aviation was given 15.3 million and in the 2019/2020 budget, the authority required more than $16 million. BANSA has no budget history as it is a new body.

Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis presented the 2021/2022 budget communication in the House of assembly yesterday and lauded the government’s move to take control of the country’s sovereign airspace and begin collecting overflight fees.

“This will mean somewhere between $25 million and $30 million per year for utilization in the civil aviation section,” Minnis said.

“While the airspace agreement does not place revenue directly into the government’s hands or into the consolidated fund, the revenues derived will offset the costs to operate the Civil Aviation Authority and related agencies in that sector. This has permitted the government to reduce allocations to those entities, as reflected in the budget.”

The FAA will monitor The Bahamas’ sovereign airspace for a period of ten years at no cost. The country could collect up to $350 million from overflight airlines over that ten years.

And while the FAA’s monitoring of the airspace will be done at no cost, this country will have to pay an annual $80,000 fee to acquire data on airlines passing through The Bahamas’ airspace. That data will help BANSA to collect overflight fees due to this country.

The post Airspace agreement leads to trim of civil aviation budget appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/airspace-agreement-leads-to-trim-of-civil-aviation-budget/