More than 70 aviation officials, regulators and industry representatives gathered in Georgetown, Guyana, to advance a draft roadmap tying Caribbean safety oversight to a 2035 horizon — a step CARICOM Secretary-General Dr. Carla Barnett said is overdue as regulatory demands outpace national capacity.

The one-day symposium, convened by the CARICOM Secretariat with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and hosted by the Government of Guyana and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, focused on the Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Oversight System (CASSOS).

What does the CASSOS roadmap cover?

Participants reviewed a draft CASSOS Roadmap and Action Matrix to 2035 addressing six workstreams: sustainability of civil aviation authorities, regulatory harmonisation, air transport services under the Multilateral Air Services Agreement, implementation timelines, financing, and monitoring.

The document is not finalised. CARICOM said the matrix will guide Member States through a decade of capacity building, with milestones still subject to consultation.

Who else participated?

International partners contributed perspectives, including ICAO, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Transport Canada and the United Kingdom. Caribbean airlines, private-sector representatives and revenue authorities added an industry voice.

Why does regional pooling matter for small states?

Guyana Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret'd) Mark Phillips framed the issue in passenger terms.

"A passenger may never see an inspection record or know the name of the controller guiding a flight. That passenger has every right to expect that the work has been done. Our responsibility is to make that confidence deserved," Phillips said.

Speakers stressed that Caribbean states face the same Chicago Convention obligations as much larger nations, despite operating with smaller administrations and tighter budgets.

How do officials plan to move from talk to action?

Guyana's Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, Deodat Indar, urged the region to treat cooperation as an operating principle rather than an aspiration.

"The decision before us is whether regional cooperation will remain an aspiration or become the operating principle of Caribbean aviation. Let us choose action," Indar said.

ICAO Regional Director for South America Luis Fernando Fiallos addressed concerns that pooling oversight could dilute national control.

"Under the Chicago Convention, ultimate responsibility for safety oversight rests with each sovereign State. Yet regional arrangements do not diminish sovereignty; they reinforce it," Fiallos said.

What financing questions remain?

Caribbean Development Bank representative William Ashby flagged the structural challenge: meeting international standards requires specialised technical capacity that small markets struggle to sustain alone. He did not announce new funding instruments, but his presence signals that multilateral lenders are now part of the safety conversation.

Barnett linked air connectivity to economic resilience, family ties and emergency response for small island and low-lying coastal states — framing safety investment as a development issue, not only a regulatory one.

The next test will be whether Member States sign off on the 2035 matrix and identify the budget lines or external grants to back it, turning the Georgetown dialogue into binding deliverables.