By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

NEGOTIATORS from the governments of the Bahamas and the United States yesterday started long-awaited face-to-face talks over the management of the Bahamas’ airspace – talks which could result in the Bahamas receiving revenues from overflight fees.  

The negotiations are at least ten years in the making and they come several weeks after Prime Minister Perry Christie explained that the US collects millions to control and manage the Bahamas’ airspace.

He noted that Bahamasair also has to pay the US for flying in the Bahamas’ airspace.

Speaking during a press conference at the Foreign Affairs and Immigration Ministry yesterday, Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin said: “We shall from this engagement be seeking an accord as it relates to the management of the Bahamas’ air space and a redefinition of that airspace which is consonant with the geographical reality of our archipelago.

“The management arrangement will in the first instance, we anticipate, lead to a sharing of revenues emanating from overflight fees and the exemption of Bahamas registered aircraft flying in Bahamas air space from the levying of such fees. We are expectant that our talks will be undergirded by clarity and cordiality and a prevailing mutual respect and that we will very quickly find common ground on all of the matters I have stated herein and any other matters which may arise in the course of discussions.”

She added that she could not say how much money the Bahamas could receive from the deal and that the negotiations will “determine how the math works out.”

She added that the money obtained would be used to invest in infrastructure and crash and rescue procedures.

Both the United States and the Bahamas are a part of the International Civil Aviation (ICA).

Calling yesterday’s meeting “historic,” US Charge d’Affaires John Armstrong noted that although various preliminary meetings have taken place in Washington between the two parties, this is the first time the negotiators have met face-to-face to find out what each side is interested in.

Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and Carey Fagan, Executive Director of International Affairs with the US’s Federal Aviation Administration (FDA), also spoke before yesterday’s meeting.