Congratulations are well in order for Cary Price, who was appointed as the next director general of civil aviation (DGCA) of the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority (TTCAA).

On November 22, TTCAA chairman Thomas Lawrence informed all staff by an internal memo that pursuant to a Cabinet minute, Price will be appointed DGCA with effect from January 1, 2024.

Price will succeed Francis Regis, who was appointed in April 2017.

Like his predecessor, Regis has an illustrious aviation career that began in 1979, when he joined the BWIA Engineering and Maintenance Department after spending three years at the John S Donaldson Technical Institute, graduating with a diploma in mechanical engineering.

After obtaining his aircraft maintenance engineer’s licence, Regis moved into the management ranks at BWIA, becoming the head of quality.

In this position, he was responsible for ensuring the maintenance, repair and overhaul of all BWIA aircraft, engines and components are done in accordance with the approved aircraft maintenance manuals.

In 1996, the government decided to localise the provision of aviation safety regulatory services being performed at that time by personnel from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) under contract.

Regis and other technical BWIA quality personnel resigned from BWIA and took up appointments in the Civil Aviation Division of the Ministry of Works and Transport as airworthiness inspectors. They were joined by two retired BWIA L1011-500 training captains as flight operations inspectors.

In 2000, Regis single-handedly certificated the first Boeing 737-800 aircraft delivered to BWIA, and received a Boeing award for that achievement.

The government did not renew the contract with the UK CAA, and for the first time in TT’s aviation history, all aviation safety regulatory functions were being performed by locals.

In 2001, Parliament enacted the Civil Aviation Act, which established the TTCAA. Regis and the inspectorate team were transferred to the TTCAA.

Regis was appointed executive manager of safety regulation with responsibility for all regulatory matters required by the Civil Aviation Act.

The act prescribes the TTCAA’s primary functions, inter alia, as regulating all civil aviation activities in TT and providing air navigation services in the Piarco Flight Information Region (FIR) which is an area of 750,000 square miles of airspace.

In 2005, the TTCAA imposed a regime of user charges for air navigation services provided to aircraft operating in the Piarco FIR.

This made the TTCAA a cash-rich organisation, enabling the full funding of all capital projects, including constructing the ultra-modern civil aviation complex and installing state-of-the-art air navigation equipment.

TTCAA employees enjoy terms and conditions of employment that are better than comparable positions in the public service.

Regis and his team provided yeoman support to the DGCA in TT’s quest to be upgraded to FAA IASA Category 1.

TT was downgraded to Category 2 because the UK CAA system