On May 11, the TT Civil Aviation Authority (TTCAA) hosted a gala retirement, long service and recognition function at the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain. The theme of the function was Soaring through Time: Honouring Commitment and Excellence.
The function was well attended by all categories of employees, retirees, members of the TTCAA board and the Minister of Works and Transport, Rohan Sinanan.
Through the valued performances of its employees, the TTCAA is recognised by regional and international aviation bodies as a world class centre of aviation excellence.
As a signatory to the Chicago Convention, TT has an international obligation to maintain a standard of safety and efficiency in its civil aviation system that is at least equal to the standard of safety prescribed by the convention.
The Civil Aviation Act established the TTCAA as a body corporate and prescribes its statutory functions which include the regulation of all civil aviation operations in TT and the provision of air navigation services (ANS) in the Piarco Flight Information Region (FIR). The Piarco FIR is an area of approximately 750,000 square miles of airspace.
The ANS division of the TTCAA provides air navigation services 24/7 to aircraft that traverse the Piarco FIR. Services include air traffic services, communication, navigation, surveillance, air navigation meteorological services, aeronautical information services and search and rescue.
The safety and security division licenses pilots, engineers, air traffic controllers, flight dispatchers and TT’s two international airports. It approves aviation-maintenance organisations and aviation-training organisations. A critical function is the certification of air operators to conduct commercial air transport operations by the grant of an air operators certificate. The grant of all licenses and approvals conforms to the ICAO standards prescribed in the annexes to the Chicago Convention.
The corporate services division includes support functions such as finance, human resource, information technology, property maintenance, the economic regulation of air transport, civil aviation training and corporate planning.
The corporate planning department (CPD), established in 2015, is a centralised coordinating body to implement and monitor strategies that fulfil both divisional and overarching goals in alignment with the TTCAA statutory functions. The CPD develops and updates the TTCAA strategic goals, strategies to support those goals and operational objectives of the TTCAA through consultations with the management team, the director general of civil aviation (DGCA) and the board.
In his opening remarks, the DGCA, Cary Price, stated that the function, the first of its kind, was the brainchild of Francis Regis, his predecessor.
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The board’s chairman, Capt Thomas Lawrence, and Sinanan gave short welcome remarks. Sinanan complimented the TTCAA for its achievements in meeting TT’s Chicago Convention obligations and ha
