“We are prepared and the certification process is included in out 2007 plan of activities, and as soon as the Airport and Air Security company (ASA) submits the request, we’ll give an immediate response, enacting the certification process, which is public, as it is published in the Official Bulletin,” said the official.

The president of the AAC declined to venture a guess as to dates for the conclusion of the process and the consequent opening of the airport, saying only that the Civil Aviation Agency is “ready to begin its work at any time and to conclude it within the space of one week, as long as everything is in order.”

Valdemar Correia said his confidence in the efficiency of the AAC employees and the international consultants it normally contracts, who have “already been contacted,” allowed him to make such an optimistic forecast, adding that the certification process of Praia International Airport allowed the agency to “gain experience” that would be “very useful” for the process on Boa Vista.

Nevertheless, Correia called ASA’s attention to the need to rigorously respect the terms of the regulations upon which the certification process is founded. According to the AAC president, new and “more restrictive” norms were recently adopted, including the Safety Management System, which obliges those operating in a given airport to maintain a security system in which risks may be easily measurable.

The beginning of operations at Boa Vista’s new international airport, work on which has already been completed, is being anxiously awaited ,particularly by tourist agency and hotel owners, who have complained of not being able to implement their plans due to the delays in the opening of the facility.

Several days ago, the managing associate of the Hotel Venta Club Boa Vista publicly demanded a “definitive date” for the opening of the airport, and justified his recent layoff of 150 workers with what he said were the losses he incurred as a result of the high cost of transporting European tourists between the islands of Sal and Boa Vista.

ASA administrative council president Mário Paixão reacted to the affirmations by explaining that a large part of the delay in the opening of the airport was due precisely to the pullout of Italian business group Viaggi del Ventaglio, the owners of Hotel Venta Club Boa Vista, from a partnership with ASA for the construction of the airport.

Even so, Paixão announced the opening of the Boa Vista international airport for June of 2007.

Source A Semana