LIAT makes test night landing flight into Dominica airport
TheDominican.net Newsdesk
Dominica’s plan to introduce night landing at the Melville Hall airport got a major boost with the announcement by the regional airline, LIAT that one of its planes landed there on Tuesday night.
LIAT makes debut night landing into Melville Hall.
The test flight comprised officials from the airlines and the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCA). It was intended to demonstrate that the airport could accommodate night landing just weeks after the Dominica authorities announced that they had met all of the requirements for accommodating such flights.
News of the test flight comes after the government of Dominica spent millions of dollars in upgrading the facility. This included a lengthening of the runway, and converting the airport from a strictly visual based landed to one that can be done through instrumentation.
The airport, which was built in 1968 have never had night landing thus severely constraining air traffic into the country.
Dominica’s works minister Rayburn Blackmore has indicated that the clearance for night landing has been issued by the International Civil Aviation authorities who are satisfied that the country has satisfied all of the requirements.
The LIAT authorities however have so far not indicated when or if commercial night time flights would commence.
American Airlines, the other major carrier into Dominica have also not indicated when they would begin night time flights to Dominica.
