Established in 1974 under the Airports Authority Act as an independent statutory body, with initial responsibility (ownership and management) for the nation’s two international airports; namely Norman Manley International Airport and Sangster International Airport.
In 1990, Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ) took on the additional responsibility for the island’s four domestic aerodromes. Since its inception AAJ has worked diligently to fulfil its principal mandate of developing and operating a safe and secure airport system for Jamaica. For several years now AAJ has been adjusting structurally, in keeping with the Government’s airport privatization policy.
Jamaica has always had a vibrant civil aviation industry with the first flight reported in the island on December 21, 1911. This is eight years after the world recorded its first powered flight by the Wright Brothers. Nineteeen years later, on December 3, 1930, the first commercial flight, Pan American consolidated Commodore, a twin - engined flying boat, landed in the Kingston Harbour.
The year 1934 was also another historic period for the nation's aviation industry when Dr. Albert Forsythe and Charles C. Anderson (the godfathers of African American aviation) arrived in Jamaica from Cuba. This was the first time a land plane was arriving in the island by air.
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