Philipsburg (DCOMM):--- On Thursday, June 21, the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport & Telecommunication Romeo F. Pantophlet met with Aviation stakeholders to discuss current issues in the industry, challenges, possible solutions and action points.
Minister Pantophlet said, "We are busy working hard to increase the standards in the civil aviation sectors by increasing the supervision of aviation, improving the communication among aviation partners, and improving necessary legislation, regulation hiring key , personnel and establishing procedures."
One of the key Civil Aviation issues that has the attention of the Minister is the downgrading of the Civil Aviation status of Curacao and St. Maarten, by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from Category I to Category II, and the actions that Curacao and St. Maarten Governments have been undertaking to return to the Category I rating.
Also present were the Supervisory Board of WINAIR who met and briefed the new Minister of Aviation, on the current operations and future plans of the airline.
In conclusion, the stakeholders and government agreed to possible actions and cooperation in order to strengthen the Civil Aviation industry, to ensure that St. Maarten aviation becomes an independent entity, the strengthening of the cooperation with other Civil Aviation Authorities within the Kingdom and other potential parties as well as to increase the sustainability of WINAIR.
Present were Robert Budike (Secretary of the Supervisory Board), Robert Gibbs (Change Manager and Interim Financial Director), Mr. Michael Cleaver (Managing Director of WINAIR), Hans de Jong (representative of the Netherlands) and Gerrit Draai (Representative of the Netherlands on the Supervisory Board of Directors), George Greaux (Chairman of the Supervisory Board) and Michael Ferrier (Aviation Stakeholder) and from the side of government, Mr. Dexter Doncher (Advisor to the Minister), May-Ling Chun (Director of Tourism), the Minister Romeo F. Pantophlet, Miguel de Weever (SG TEZVT) and Louis Halley (Head of the Civil Aviation & Shipping and Maritime department).