The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCCA) is prioritising safety regulations this year as it strives to achieve a higher level of compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Director General, Lieutenant Colonel (retd), Egbert Field was quoted by the Department of Public Information (DPI) as saying that one of the Authority’s main objectives this year will be to revise its regulations to reflect the standards and recommended practices outlined by ICAO.
“Seeing that we will be bringing out the revised Civil Aviation Bill, it will require that we revise our regulations. They will include safety management systems, regulations pertaining to drone operations, revised operations regulations for the industry so a number of items will be revised,” Field explained.
Currently, the Civil Aviation Bill is before the Parliamentary Select Committee and it is anticipated that approval will be granted before the end of the year. According to DPI, Fields said that the passage of the bill does not see the industry being burdened with additional regulations.
In fact, he explained that the industry is already operating under the regulations spelt out in the Bill. “The only thing we’re doing is putting it in its proper format and ensuring that it is being presented to them in the way ICAO wants it to be presented.”
According to DPI, in addition to revising its regulations, GCAA will also be conducting a compliance and enforcement training programme in February. Field stated that the exercise will play an integral role in aiding the Authority to respond positively to those items requested by ICAO and bring GCAA closer towards compliance.
Guyana is currently third from the bottom in compliance ranking, having moved up one place. However, the Authority, which is currently around 70 percent in compliance has been doing corrective actions to move toward 80 percent, before the end of the year, DPI said.
In 2017, the Authority was awarded the ICAO Council President’s Certificate for its significant progress in safety oversight.
