The new $400M runway and terminal of the Ogle Airport were officially opened yesterday bringing significant development in Guyana’s air transport infrastructure and the facility is now ready to host smaller regional airline operators.
However this is only the first phase of the project which represents the vision of five well-known local entrepreneurs and on completion of the second phase the airport would be ready to accommodate the larger airline operators from the Caribbean.
The airport has satisfied all of the safety requirements of the International Civil Avia-tion Organisation (ICAO) and its Chairman Michael Correia describes the project as a “continuously emerging and expanding national project.”
“We are ready now to accommodate the smaller regional airline operators capable of providing direct linkages to the International Airports in Cayenne, Boa Vista, Puerto Ordaz and Paramaribo and to serve as a hub for through traffic from the Caribbean. We will be operating from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.”, Correia declared.
This first phase which has been successfully completed includes the construction of a 2000-ft long by 60 ft wide Class 1A runway built to international specifications, aircraft taxi and customs, immigration, health and air traffic control and a building designed to accommodate 75,000 passengers per year.
Roraima Airways Managing Director, Captain Gerald Gouveia; Correia, who also heads the country’s Private Sector Commission; rice miller, Beni Sankar; forrester, Mazar Ally and former Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Autho-rity Anthony Mekdeci are the five businessmen who came together with the Government and Caricom and invested in the project.
Addressing the audience at the launching ceremony in the foyer of the terminal facility, Correia noted that Guyana would benefit from the establishment of a second national airport with permanent, immovable infrastructure, built, financed and managed by private investors, and supported and regulated by the Government.
Correia said “we believe Ogle Airport must of necessity play a critical role in our achieving that vision and developing that destiny for Guyana.
“In 1999, when GAC’s operation, having cost billions of dollars in losses were closed, the Aircraft Owners Association gave our government a guarantee that we would provide an efficient and cost effective domestic air service at competitive rates. We believe that we have delivered on that undertaking,” he said of the new terminal.
Correia shared his belief too that he and the other entrepreneurs in the project, have served as an example of a professional association of extremely diverse and competitive private businessmen working together in a highly complex and regulated industry in a common cause to serve the nation.
Ogle, he said, had become the hub of all domestic air transport travel and is now serving as the base for eight operators maintaining a fleet in excess of thirty aircraft, transporting approximately 60,000 passengers and 3000 tons of cargo per year.
This, he added, represented an investment of about $3B in fixed assets, aircraft and equipment.
Caricom Secretary General Dr. Edwin Carrington was also instrumental in championing the development of the airport and played a critical role along with government in securing funding for the project’s second phase.
Carrington took great pride in expressing how proud he was of the achievement which he termed, “the threshold of the realization of a dream.”
“As secretary general of Caricom I was privileged to turn the keys of our very own headquarters at Turkeyen and it was added pleasure to be part of the opening of the International Conference Centre and now I am proud to be addressing the ceremony to mark the end of the 1st phase of the airport,” he said.
Carrington pointed too to the proximity of the airport to the Caricom headquarters and noted that with the recent strides made, “you could well be on your way to equipping Georgetown as the Brussels of the Caribbean”.
He noted too that the significance of the airport would not be underestimated and commended the government for supporting the initiative.
He said once Caricom had learnt of the initiative it was happy to lend support and in this vein too extended gratitude to CARIFORUM for its backing.
“This airport is well poised to becoming a new regional airport and will facilitate the co-mingling of our peoples,” Carrington said.
Carrington said too that the airport will open opportunities for the country’s tourism sector and being just five minutes from the secretariat building will go a far way in facilitating easier travel for its staff.
Taking the risk
President Bharrat Jagdeo who delivered the feature address said the Ogle airport project was evidence of an effort by five businessmen who were willing to ‘take the risk’ and invest for the good of the country.
“What we see here is a product of hard work and of something that we badly lacked because of
