What we're seein' in the Caribbean

A bunch of Caribbean countries are changing things up to ‘harmonise’ themselves with ICAO SARPS. That’s Standards and Recommended Practices.

Here’s what we know.

You need TCAS 7.1

This is a Bermudian requirement. Bermuda is of course actually part of Great Britain, sort of (they are a British overseas territory), so by doing what ICAO say, they are fitting with the UK CAA regulations which makes it all a bit simpler.

So, if you want to visit Bermuda in a turbine-engined airplane under FAR 121, 135 or 91K rules which weighs more than 5700kg (12,500 lb) or is authorised to carry more than 19 passengers then you’ll need ACAS II (that’s TCAS II Version 7.1)

If you fly a turbine-engined airplane involved in FAR 91 or non-commercial operations, then the specifications to know are certified take-off mass more than 33,000 lbs (15,000kg) or passengers more than 30, with your airworthiness certificate first issued after January 1st 2007.

When will you need it?

April 1st 2023.

Where’s the official notice?

It is right here – OPSN 03-22 and it says exactly what we said but on official Bermudian BCAA headed paper.

You can also get in touch via email with them directly if you have any questions: foreignoperatorpermit@bcaa.bm

Parts of the Caribbean where the changes are coming in.

You said several countries?

We did. The Bahamas also have some changes coming in. Actually, they came in in 2021, but with Covid you might not have noticed them so here’s a refresher.

They brought our their Civil Aviation Act of 2021, published in their ‘Extraordinary Official Gazette The Bahamas’.

What it says is that foreign commercial operators will need a Bahamian Air Transport License to fly there. To get this you need to be safe, secure and meet some financial obligations. These are listed in Section 15.

Section 16, Subsection 2 Part 1 clarifies a little point about foreign operators – it doesn’t apply to folk overflying or even landing if you don’t have passengers, cargo or mail that gets off in the Bahamas.

There are also a lot of pages on what will happen if you don’t abide by the rules etc etc so it is worth a read if you haven’t been into the Bahamas since February 16th 2021.

Is that it?

Yes, for now, but more things will hopefully come in at some point.

All this started to come about in 2018 during a big meeting between CARICOM (all the Caribbean member states) and ICAO where they talked about it. You can read the 2018 ICAO press release here if you want to.

CARICOM – Bermuda and a few others are associate members.

What we’re seein’ in the Caribbean