Trans­port Min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj says by the end of the week out­stand­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions be­tween the T&T Civ­il Avi­a­tion Au­thor­i­ty (TTCAA) and the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) will be set­tled "once and for all." He was the fea­ture speak­er at the open­ing of the In­ter­na­tion­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Day ex­po and awards func­tion at the new avi­a­tion com­plex, Ca­roni North Bank Road, Pi­ar­co yes­ter­day. The ex­po is the first of its kind in lo­cal avi­a­tion his­to­ry.

Ma­haraj added: "I know for the last few months we have been en­gaged in ne­go­ti­a­tions to solve the im­passe that you have and I can tell you now that as of this morn­ing (yes­ter­day) we are hope­ful by the end of the week we will be able to sign with the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion." PSA pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke yes­ter­day con­firmed the sign­ing off would take place soon. He said the new com­plex would be of­fi­cial­ly opened ear­ly next year, hope­ful­ly by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Cur­rent­ly, the TTCAA is housed in a build­ing over 55 years old.

The com­plex hous­es an ad­min­is­tra­tion build­ing, a train­ing cen­tre, an area con­trol cen­tre and a con­trol tow­er with mod­ern, state-of-the art air traf­fic fa­cil­i­ties. Speak­ing to re­porters af­ter, Ma­haraj said the ne­go­ti­a­tions start­ed in the 70s and there were back-and-forth agree­ments which end­ed up in the courts.

He said: "All the while the work­ers here are see­ing their coun­ter­parts in oth­er min­istries get­ting their deals signed up and they can't get theirs signed as yet. "So I was re­al­ly anx­ious to have it re­solved, es­pe­cial­ly be­fore the end of the year. You know Christ­mas time peo­ple want an ex­tra change in their pock­ets and so on." Ma­haraj said he for­ward­ed his rec­om­men­da­tions to Fi­nance Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an to be signed off so the new struc­ture could be put in place. He re­fused to com­ment on mat­ters re­gard­ing the board of the Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty of T&T. (RKR)