With Anguilla now entering the 2016-2017 Tourism Season, it has been announced that the downgrading of the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport is over. It now means that the restrictions that were placed on its operations – limiting the size of aircraft flying into the island – are no longer in force.
The following is a press release, to that effect, issued by the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority:
“November 1st, 2016
“The restrictions placed on the airport operations at the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport (CJLIA) by Air Safety Support International, ASSI, the regulator of civil aviation in the British Overseas Territories, have now been lifted with effect from Tuesday, November 1st, 2016.
“This decision was communicated in a letter dated November 1st, 2016 to Mr. Marcel Fahie, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority (AASPA) and Acting Accountable Manager for the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport. Accompanying the letter was an updated Aerodrome Certificate with an issue date of November 1st 2016 with the restrictions removed, valid in the first instance for a period of six months ending April 30, 2017. The Aerodrome Certificate establishing the restrictions had been issued on August 19, 2016 and took effect on August 21, 2016. That Certificate has been revoked effective from November 1st.
“The Board of Directors of the AASPA takes this opportunity to publicly thank our aviation consultant, Mr. Allen Barnett and our managers and staff at the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport for their diligent and dedicated work to rectify the deficiencies in the operations of the Airport and close the findings that led to the restriction of the operating certificate. We also thank our partners and stakeholders in the public and private sectors especially in the tourism industry, our visitors and the friends of Anguilla abroad, as well as the Anguillian Community as a whole for the goodwill, support and encouragement we have received throughout the period from August 21 when the restrictions were put in place over the 10 weeks until November 1st, 2016, when the restrictions were lifted. That support has sustained and motivated the Airport management team and their staff to redouble their work effort to achieve the return of the Airport to normal operations in the shortest possible time.
“There is much more work to be done. The management and staff at the Airport are motivated and committed and will continue their dedicated work with guidance of our consultant and the full support of the AASPA directors and will continue to implement the necessary improvements to make the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport a well functioning Airport over the long term.”
