World’s First Global Training Centre on Aviation at Piarco International Airport
10/12/2006
Trinidad and Tobago has become the world’s first Global Training Centre on aviation with the recent formalisation of an agreement between the Airports Authority of Trinidad and Tobago and the Airports Council International (ACI). This landmark development is being viewed positively by industry professionals in the Caribbean and internationally as it provides easier and more convenient access to training and points to the broadening of the ACI’s training operations outside of the traditional bases, beginning with Trinidad and Tobago.
The ACI is the voice of the world’s airports and it works to advance the interests of airports while promoting professional excellence in airport management and operations. It has 567 members operating over 1650 airports in 176 countries and territories.
The Global Training Centre will provide training and support for airport personnel worldwide in a range of areas such as benchmarking, certification, crisis management, non-aeronautical revenues, operational safety and natural disaster management.
Since February 1996, under a similar type agreement with the International Civil Aviation Organisation, Trinidad and Tobago has served as the ICAO’s regional centre for aviation security training. ICAO, a United Nations specialised agency, aims to achieve the safe, secure and sustainable development of civil aviation through cooperation amongst its member states. The ACI programmes will be conducted at the ultra-modern Aviation Security Training Centre at Piarco International Airport, the same facility from which the ICAO programmes are carried out.
Locating the ACI’s first Global Training Centre at Piarco International Airport is reflective of the regard held for Trinidad and Tobago in the field of aviation and is a direct consequence of the Airports Authority’s successful hosting of the ACI-LAC XIII Regional Assembly in November 2004 and subsequent election to the Regional Board. The position on the Regional Board enables the Airports Authority to better champion the interests of the region. Interestingly, the Airports Authority was re-elected to the Regional Board of the ACI-LAC at its XIV Regional Assembly in Santo Domingo in October 2006.
ACI Director General, Robert J. Aaronson has stated that in selecting Trinidad and Tobago, the ACI considered: “The excellent infrastructure available at the airport as well as the central location of Trinidad and Tobago within the Caribbean, easy air access for ACI members and the English language facilities made this a natural choice.”
According to Mr. Aaronson: “By establishing the GTC in Trinidad and Tobago, the ACI is able to meet its principle objective of providing high quality training in the most accessible way. The agreement demonstrates the ACI’s commitment to providing excellence to its members on a global level within local reach. This is ACI’s investment in the human capital of its members.”
The AATT-ACI agreement furthers Trinidad and Tobago’s developed nation status agenda with respect to the training and development of its people whilst simultaneously propelling the Airports Authority closer towards achieving its goal of a learning and growth environment and achieving its vision to become the premier provider of aviation-driven business.
The GTC at Piarco International Airport is currently being used by the ACI as a model in the setting up of its five other training centres in other parts of the world.
The Chairman of the Board of the Airports Authority, Mr. Linus Rogers, notes that: “The agreement makes a hemispheric connection with our most urgent and more immediate quest to provide a safe gateway to Trinidad and Tobago. It furthers for the long term, the link the Airports Authority has developed with the ACI, an organisation that represents close to 600 airport members over more than 1,600 airports in 176 countries.”
Mr. Rogers emphasised the importance of ensuring the growth of our human capital in a working environment that facilitates the optimum application of skills and values to attain the vision of the Airports Authority to be the premier provider of
aviation- driven business.
