Premier Ewart Brown, who is also Minister of Tourism and Transport, has pushed new Civil Aviation legislation through the House of Assembly.

The Civil Aviation (Air Transport Licensing) Act replaces a 1950 Act by the same name.

The new measure makes a variety of changes but the most notable are: increased powers for the Minister, a smaller decision-making panel and an increased focus on introducing a Bermudian civil air transportation industry.

Opposition Leader Wayne Furbert>worried the increased role of the Minister put "too much control in one person's hands".

He said: "Clearly the most powerful person in this Act will be the Minister of Transport and I was wondering why the Premier has decided that such power needs to be concentrated in so few hands."

The new law will indeed reduce the number of people who are making a slew of operational decisions about civil aviation in Bermuda.

The old law required the Governor appoint an Air Transport Licensing Board of at least five people but no more than nine.

The new law does away with the Licensing Board and replaces it with a Licensing Panel of just three members.

And if the panel makes a decision the applicant does not like, there is an appeal process that goes through the Minister of Transport — he or she would have the final say, much like the Planning appeal process.

Mr. Furbert said: "There's a concentration of power, Mr. Premier. If we're going to have a board as we had before, I have no problem.

"But here you've got these three individuals who, at the end of the day, will have to answer to who? How are you going to tell the Minister of Transport no?"

The Opposition Leader said it would be very rare for a three-member panel of civil servants to disagree with the Premier.

From his seat, Premier Brown reminded Members that applicants or people in the public who disagree with the Minister's decision still have recourse through the Supreme Court.

In his formal response Premier Brown said: "This three member panel consists of the highest level civil servants who are the most intimately involved in this process as opposed to a board that is the Minister's board.

"In a functional sense this is a most effective way to carry out this process. This is not something that happens every day, every week or every month in Bermuda but when these things come up we find it most helpful if we have the civil servants who are on the cutting edge of this kind of business.

"We believe this is in fact the best way to proceed."

The Panel's main function will be granting or revoking air transport licences. But among its duties now is: "The sound development of a Bermudian civil air transport industry."

For the most part an aviation entrepreneur would have to be Bermudian to be part of the Bermuda air transport industry — at minimum a Bermudian must have economic or operational control. However, the Minister does, once again, have sole power to grant a license to a non-Bermudian if an exception is deemed necessary.

John BarritB>(UBP) said: "I don't quite understand what's going on here.

"It's an unusual exception to find after you set up that the person needs to be Bermudian. What is the reason for the exception?"