TRANSPORT and Works Minister Robert Pickersgill yesterday said that the recertification of national carrier, Air Jamaica and domestic carrier Air Jamaica Express, by the United States Federal Aviation Administration is complete.

According to Pickersgill, the FAA has reaffirmed Category One status to the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA), the local aviation body, having completed a detailed review of the operating manuals, procedures, resources, organisational structures and facilities of the island's two major airlines and had ensured that all operations were in accordance with the new regulations.

"I am pleased (at the fact that we have fulfilled) what we said we would do and am also pleased with the presentation that the JCAA made to them (FAA)," he told the Observer yesterday.

He said the process of recertification began in March.
"We had to demonstrate that we were performing in accordance with those manuals following the visit of an inspection team in March and this had been done to their satisfaction," he told the Observer in an earlier interview.

"They gave us a clean bill of health then but there were other outstanding matters," he explained yesterday.

The outstanding obligations, he said, included the changing of five airline manuals to comply with the new air traffic regulations.

He also said that during the process the airline was subjected to hefty fines after the FAA said it did not have a proper system of how airlines would be sanctioned and policies enforced.

"The fines have been paid," he confirmed.
Yesterday, Minister Pickersgill said the JCAA was still reviewing the operations of domestic airline operators to verify their conformance with the FAA's regulations.

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