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8 9 OPENING LINES M inister of Tourism and Aviation, Di- onisio D’Aguilar, said, recently, that the government will implement a license control system that will aim at cracking down on air hacking throughout the Bahamas. “It is my intention to put in place regulations for the fixed-based operators, the terminals through which they go, General Aviation, to check their pa- perwork before they go onto the ramp and when they come off the ramp,” D’Aguilar said outside of Cabinet. “So, in that way, [we can] verify that they have a license that allows them to transport passengers commercially and to ensure that their plane has been properly inspected and licensed. “I think that’s the funnel point, where we can check pilots as they go on and off the ramp. So, that is what we are intending to do, to empower BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT TO CRACK DOWN ON UNLICENSED COMMERCIAL FLIGHTS the fixed-based operators to check the paperwork of the pilots to ensure that they are not hacking. Also we intend for the fixed-based operators, starting in Nassau, to check how many times they fly in and out and how many people they are carrying.” D’Aguilar said a threshold will be placed on pilots making a limited number of flights or carrying a limited number of people every month, in order to maintain their private license status. He was not able to indicate at the time what that threshold would be. “Right now, the pilots get to decide whether they are taking something for commercial pur- poses or they are doing something privately, and because the license to carry people commercially is a little bit more onerous, they say ‘these are all my friends and family, they are not paying’, and