WILLEMSTAD – The Ministry of Traffic, Transportation and Spatial Planning (VVRP) which is in charge of the Curaçao Civil Aviation Authority (CCAA) has made the decision to put Oscar Derby aside and appoint Mrs. Caroline Manuel Gonzalez as the interim director.

She will be in charge of the department until a new director is appointed.

The civil servants’ union ABVO confirmed that Oscar Derby is no longer the director of the CCAA. “Mrs. Manuel Gonzalez was appointed to start the process of appointing a new director,” said Wendy Calmes, president of the ABVO union.

Derby gets three months to finish what he has been doing, which is to bring Curaçao’s aviation back to category 1.

In January 2012 the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) degraded Curaçao’s aviation sector to category 2. This was a dark day for the history of the island’s aviation sector. Today, four years later, and with many promises, the island has not been able to upgrade itself back to category 1.

There were several directors and foreign consultants who worked at the CCAA to bring the aviation back to category 1, but to no avail. Apparently the CCAA is now at the closest point for the FAA to consider upgrading it back to category 1. One of the problems since the beginning has been the lack of funds.

In 2013 the former Minister of the VVRP Earl Balborda signed a very important document with the FAA in Washington. It’s an agreement to help promote security and efficiency in the local aviation sector. Balborda also appointed Oscar Derby as the director of the CCAA. He was a man with a long history in the aviation sector in Jamaica. His main task was to bring Curaçao back to category 1.

Now in 2016 the aviation sector is still in category 2 and Derby’s contract will not be extended.

Bron: CuracaoChroncicle