Longtail Aviation is now authorised to offer public charter flights with its two aircraft operating out of its headquarters at Southside, Transport Minister Ewart Brown announced on Friday. The Department of Civil Aviation is also taking a role in expanding Russia?s airline industry, while the Department of Marine and Ports is moving towards computers as it prepares for the larger cruise ships of the future.

?In order for our Island to be equipped to deal with these vessels, a series of modifications must be made. The thrust of this project entails the entire overhaul of all our ports,? Dr. Brown told members of the House of Assembly on Friday.

?Members of the Department have been hard at work in acquiring a special computerised maritime database to assist them in identifying the true and accurate measurements of our channels and harbours.?

Bermuda?s bathymetric data was recorded more than 20 years ago on a series of five paper charts, he said. With the prospect of larger cruise ships, ?it is essential for the safe navigation of all ships plying Bermuda?s channels and harbours that the measurement data available is verified as being accurate and up to date.?

The initiative will also be tremendously cost-effective for Government, he said. ?In recent times, when a vessel ?new? to Bermuda has sought approval to enter Bermudian waters, it has been necessary to electronically stimulate a model of the vessel against electronic chart datum of the required area, to verify that it is safe for the vessel to proceed to her berth. ?The cost of this has typically been around $30,000 to Marine and Ports, and for this expense, Bermuda has derived no ongoing benefit other than the arrival of the vessel itself.?

However in late 2004 Marine and Ports took the initiative of arranging for two of the five paper charts to be converted to an electronic format and put on a database now retained and owned by Bermuda. The programme has already been used to approve the Voyager of the Seas to berth at Dockyard in June 2005. ?The cost to date has been less than one previous simulation and the asset is thereby retained for future education and development.?

Port development, pilot training and night pilot age will also become part of the database, and the final three remaining paper charts are due to be converted to the electronic format by June 2005, Dr. Brown said. Transport is working just as hard to move ahead in the air as it is on the seas, Dr. Brown said.

On Friday he announced that the Bermuda Register of Aircraft within the Department of Civil Aviation will shortly register the first of five Boeing 737-500 aircraft to be operated in Russia by that country?s second largest airline, Siberia Airlines. Russia is experiencing spectacular growth in civil aviation, with 2004 being the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth, he said.

Siberia Airlines is the largest domestic airline, while Aeroflot leads the pack with passenger count and has 34 aircraft on the Bermuda Register. The Department of Civil Aviation has also just completed the second of two audits in the past 18 months by the UK?s Air Safety Support International (ASSI), Dr. Brown said.

The organisation is mandated with ensuring the UK?s Overseas Territories aviation regulations meet international standards. ?The Department has been assessed as fully capable of carrying out all its functions and been given a sound assessment on both occasions,? Dr. Brown said.