MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Director General of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA), Nari Williams-Singh, said major plans are in place for the upgrading of air traffic control equipment and training of personnel.

“We also have very aggressive plans in place to monitor and maintain our current systems in conjunction with our maintenance service providers, Aerotel. We are trying to be as proactive as we can in remote fault monitoring, looking at trends so we can head-off potential problems before they occur,” he said.

Williams-Singh said that the new air traffic control towers for the Donald Sangster and Norman Manley International airports are complete and should be commissioned into service by the end of this year.

Jamaica’s air traffic controllers monitor Jamaica’s airspace and also provide limited service to the Cayman Islands, while maintaining communication with their counterparts in Panama, South America, Haiti and Miami.

He said an average of 178 flights are monitored by the country’s air traffic controllers on a daily basis, which should see a steady growth in air traffic in the coming years.