T&T signs air services agreements with Panama, Ghana

Trinidad and To­ba­go has signed Air Ser­vices Agree­ments with Pana­ma and Ghana, open­ing the way for strength­ened avi­a­tion links with Latin Amer­i­ca and Africa.

The agree­ments were signed on Mon­day by For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment dur­ing the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly in New York.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go del­e­ga­tion to the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly is be­ing led by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

The agree­ments es­tab­lish the frame­work for air ser­vices be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the two coun­tries, while cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for in­creased con­nec­tiv­i­ty and clos­er eco­nom­ic and peo­ple-to-peo­ple ties.

The Gov­ern­ment said the arrange­ments are ex­pect­ed to sup­port tourism, trade and in­vest­ment while strength­en­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s in­ter­na­tion­al avi­a­tion net­work.

Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion Min­is­ter Eli Za­k­our wel­comed the agree­ments, de­scrib­ing them as part of the Gov­ern­ment’s broad­er strat­e­gy to ex­pand the coun­try’s air ser­vices arrange­ments.

The agree­ment with Pana­ma is ex­pect­ed to be par­tic­u­lar­ly sig­nif­i­cant be­cause of the coun­try’s role as a ma­jor avi­a­tion hub con­nect­ing the Caribbean with Cen­tral, South and North Amer­i­ca.

Pana­ma is home to Toc­u­men In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, a ma­jor re­gion­al hub and a key con­nect­ing point for pas­sen­gers trav­el­ling be­tween the Amer­i­c­as.

The agree­ment with Ghana pro­vides a frame­work for de­vel­op­ing stronger avi­a­tion links be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the African con­ti­nent.

The Gov­ern­ment said the agree­ment could con­tribute to clos­er re­la­tions be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Ghana while cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for in­creased trav­el and com­mer­cial links.

The Min­istry of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion said it will con­tin­ue work­ing with lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners to ex­pand Trinidad and To­ba­go’s air ser­vices arrange­ments.

The Gov­ern­ment said the ob­jec­tive is to strength­en the coun­try’s po­si­tion as a key avi­a­tion hub in the Caribbean while cre­at­ing new op­por­tu­ni­ties for in­ter­na­tion­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty.

The agree­ments form part of broad­er ef­forts to deep­en bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions with Pana­ma and Ghana.

The Gov­ern­ment said it looks for­ward to build­ing on the arrange­ments and fur­ther strength­en­ing co­op­er­a­tion with both coun­tries.