Ba­hamas Prime Min­is­ter Phillip Davis is call­ing for new part­ner­ships for the fu­ture of avi­a­tion in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean say­ing to­geth­er ‘we have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to make a re­al dif­fer­ence in how our re­gion meets the de­mands of a com­plex, in­ter­con­nect­ed world”.

Ad­dress­ing the open­ing of the Latin Amer­i­can & Caribbean Air Trans­port As­so­ci­a­tion (AL­TA) Fo­rum, Prime Min­is­ter Davis said the event pro­vides an “in­valu­able op­por­tu­ni­ty for us to share ideas, ad­dress our com­mon chal­lenges, and col­lab­o­rate on ways to strength­en the avi­a­tion net­work across Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.

“This gath­er­ing is es­pe­cial­ly mean­ing­ful as it aligns with our Ba­hamas Avi­a­tion Week, a time we use to rec­og­nize the progress and ded­i­ca­tion that dri­ve our avi­a­tion sec­tor,” he added.

Davis said re­cent­ly the coun­try launched the Na­tion­al Avi­a­tion Strate­gic Plan, which he de­scribed as “a clear frame­work de­signed to build a sus­tain­able, ef­fi­cient, and high-stan­dard avi­a­tion sec­tor that con­tin­ues to meet the evolv­ing needs of our peo­ple and our re­gion”.

He told the del­e­gates that in a coun­try like the Ba­hamas, with near­ly 700 is­lands and cays spread across vast stretch­es of ocean, the abil­i­ty to con­nect these is­lands re­lies on a ro­bust avi­a­tion net­work.

“With 20 in­ter­na­tion­al air­ports, each serv­ing as a crit­i­cal gate­way, The Ba­hamas de­pends on avi­a­tion not on­ly to sup­port tourism and trade but al­so to pro­vide es­sen­tial links for our peo­ple to health­care, ed­u­ca­tion, and eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties. This net­work is more than in­fra­struc­ture; it is es­sen­tial to our way of life.”

But he ac­knowl­edged that the chal­lenges of main­tain­ing this net­work are sub­stan­tial and that keep­ing each air­port up to in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dards re­quires ex­ten­sive plan­ning, in­vest­ment, and com­mit­ment.

Prime Min­is­ter Davis said that as a re­sult, in­fra­struc­ture is not just a con­ve­nience; it’s es­sen­tial.

“Our 20 in­ter­na­tion­al air­ports serve as life­lines, pro­vid­ing crit­i­cal con­nec­tions across our is­lands and be­yond. Every air­port, from Nas­sau’s busy hub to small­er ter­mi­nals on re­mote is­lands, must meet in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dards while cater­ing to the needs of its com­mu­ni­ty.”

Davis said that the Na­tion­al Avi­a­tion Strate­gic Plan re­in­forces the com­mit­ment to main­tain­ing these stan­dards, en­sur­ing that Ba­hami­an avi­a­tion serves as a trust­ed and ef­fec­tive gate­way for the na­tion.

How­ev­er, he said in­fra­struc­ture alone is not enough and that it takes strong part­ner­ships to sus­tain and im­prove the avi­a­tion sec­tor.

“Col­lab­o­rat­ing with air­lines, air­port op­er­a­tors, and in­ter­na­tion­al avi­a­tion bod­ies al­lows us to stay aligned with in­dus­try changes and cre­ate poli­cies that sup­port our goals. This fo­rum re­flects the im­por­tance of those part­ner­ships, bring­ing to­geth­er lead­ers to forge a con­nect­ed, re­silient avi­a­tion net­work that serves us all.”

Prime Min­is­ter Davis said that con­nec­tiv­i­ty is the back­bone of the econ­o­my and es­sen­tial to dai­ly life in The Ba­hamas.

“Our air routes don’t on­ly bring tourists to our is­lands, they en­sure Ba­hami­ans can ac­cess health­care, ed­u­ca­tion, and op­por­tu­ni­ties. By en­hanc­ing con­nec­tiv­i­ty with­in The Ba­hamas and in­creas­ing routes to in­ter­na­tion­al mar­kets, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Latin Amer­i­ca, we strength­en our econ­o­my, sup­port our com­mu­ni­ties, and open doors for new op­por­tu­ni­ties.”

He said the avi­a­tion net­work re­lies on skilled pro­fes­sion­als to keep it run­ning smooth­ly, re­mind­ing the del­e­gates that safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty are at the core of every­thing they do and that this com­mit­ment to safe­ty strength­ens the trust that vis­i­tors and res­i­dents alike place in avi­a­tion.

“In to­day’s fast-evolv­ing avi­a­tion land­scape, in­no­va­tion is es­sen­tial. We’re in­te­grat­ing ad­vanced tech­nolo­gies to en­hance se­cu­ri­ty, stream­line op­er­a­tions, and im­prove the pas­sen­ger ex­pe­ri­ence. These in­no­va­tions aren’t sim­ply about stay­ing cur­rent; they’re about po­si­tion­ing The Ba­hamas as a leader in re­gion­al avi­a­tion.”

Prime Min­is­ter Davis said that The Ba­hamas is heav­i­ly im­pact­ed by cli­mate change and that the air­ports are in­cor­po­rat­ing re­new­able en­er­gy sources, adopt­ing sus­tain­able prac­tices, and align­ing with in­ter­na­tion­al emis­sions tar­gets.

“To­day, each of you brings valu­able knowl­edge and ex­pe­ri­ence to help us build a stronger, more con­nect­ed avi­a­tion net­work. To­geth­er, we have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to make a re­al dif­fer­ence in how our re­gion meets the de­mands of a com­plex, in­ter­con­nect­ed world,” he said, adding that he hopes “this fo­rum of­fers mean­ing­ful in­sights and in­spires new part­ner­ships for the fu­ture of avi­a­tion in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean”.

AL­TA chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer, José Ri­car­do Botel­ho, said the fo­rum is be­ing at­tend­ed by more than 400 in­dus­try lead­ers.

“We are proud, we are in a strate­gic re­gion. This is what AL­TA does in the re­gion: fos­ter dis­cus­sions. There is a strate­gic agen­da, not on­ly pri­vate, that must ad­dress con­nec­tiv­i­ty, but al­so the fu­ture,” Botel­ho said.

“The re­gion has to change, we are the safest op­er­a­tional re­gion in the world, but we need to ad­vance in up­dat­ing eco­nom­ic reg­u­la­tions. What the sec­tor gen­er­ates are di­rect and in­di­rect jobs, there is no place in the world where avi­a­tion ex­ists and there is no de­vel­op­ment.”