NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Bahamas Air Navigation Services Authority (BANSA) is collecting three million dollars a month in overflight fees, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism and Aviation Chester Cooper.
Cooper said the airspace agreement is proceeding “reasonably well” as the country manages a sizeable portion of its sovereign airspace.
“We established a flight information region with ICAO the international body that governs aviation, we’re at the moment collecting those fees in the region of three mil. a month,” Cooper said.
Last year, the government signed an air navigation services agreement with a civil aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to oversee the payment of fees from aircraft coming into the country.
“The plan is to use those funds for the improvement of navigational aids and services across the country. […] This was an arrangement that was made for the outsourcing of the collection through IATA, which is like the association of Airlines.
“[…] The previous administration determined that the outsourcing of the overflight management, uh, above certain regions would be done by the FAA. So that’s been outsourced to the Americans.
“We continue to negotiate in the southern region of the Bahamas with the Cuban government who continue to manage this airspace, but at the moment, we’re not collecting any fees from that side of the airspace,” Cooper continued.
“So we’re working on this actively. We continue to press forward. And that’s a matter under the remit of the Civil Aviation Authority and BANSA.”
Cooper said he was pleased with the revenue the country was able to secure this year from the fees, adding the country is doing ‘extremely well’.
“We have attracted in the region of $6 billion of new investments,” he said.
“I think this is significant and magnificent that in 12 months we were able to attract this level of investments. We want to encourage even more. We want to encourage more domestic investments.
“There have been some, we think that can be more. The reality is that I do believe that foreign direct investments is the fastest way to drive economic growth,” Cooper said.
