The Gov­ern­ment of Saint Vin­cent and the Grenadines is seek­ing dis­cus­sions on the man­age­ment and fi­nan­cial ben­e­fits of the Pi­ar­co Flight In­for­ma­tion Re­gion (FIR), which is cur­rent­ly con­trolled by Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The FIR spans from An­tigua in the north to Trinidad in the south, and east of Bar­ba­dos to the mid-At­lantic—cov­er­ing air­space from 10° to 18° North Lat­i­tude and 38° to 65° West Lon­gi­tude.

At a Ju­ly 11 press con­fer­ence, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves said coun­tries with­in the FIR, in­clud­ing Saint Vin­cent and the Grenadines, are not in­volved in its gov­er­nance and do not ben­e­fit from the rev­enue it gen­er­ates.

“They [T&T] make the mon­ey from the space that’s part of our prop­er­ty,” he said.

The FIR was es­tab­lished dur­ing the colo­nial era and, fol­low­ing in­de­pen­dence, was re­tained by Trinidad and To­ba­go un­der for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Er­ic Williams.

The doc­u­ment ar­gues that while Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ues to col­lect rev­enue from the re­gion, coun­tries like Bar­ba­dos and the OECS are ex­clud­ed from fi­nan­cial gain and de­ci­sion-mak­ing. It al­so rais­es con­cerns about trans­paren­cy, ac­count­ing, and how funds are dis­trib­uted.

The brief­ing con­trasts this with French ter­ri­to­ries such as Mar­tinique and Guade­loupe, which op­er­ate un­der a long-stand­ing arrange­ment with the Unit­ed King­dom that al­lows them to share in both the man­age­ment and pro­ceeds of their air­space.

Guardian Me­dia has reached out the Min­is­ter of Trans­porta­tion and Civ­il Avi­a­tion Eli Za­k­our for a re­sponse.