Dear Editor,
Whatever happened to the plans to make Ogle airport a regional airport to provide flights to nearby Caribbean islands, Brazil, Suriname and Venezuela? It already plays an important part in providing flights to the interior. Last we heard a new runway 2,500L x 60W was being built parallel to the existing runway. This was supposed to be completed in 2006, but would have to be extended to 4,000 to make it compliant to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards for regional flights.
Of course with an improved runway you will need improved terminal facilities with capacity to handle increased regional flights which would also invariably bring international passengers through connections in the islands and neighbouring countries. Also a hotel could be erected at Ogle airport for those tourists who would want to take flights directly to interior locations without going into Georgetown.
The re-development of this airport to a regional one could be the key to improving tourist loads to Guyana. Guyana could be feeding on tourists from the developed tourist destinations, tourists who would like to take a short weekend trip to see Guyana before going home.
Ogle airport could also become another option and possibly a more convenient one for passengers flying to far flung destinations. We could have both jet and turbo prop regional feeder aircraft from Venezuela, Brazil, Trinidad, Suriname, Grenada and Barbados where connections to larger aircraft could be made in these more established tourist destinations.
One of the reasons large aircraft from countries like Brazil and Venezuela are not being flown to Guyana is because of small load factors, but this could be negated by flying smaller regional aircraft which would have better load factors. Brazil and Venezuela have many airlines flying to North America, Europe and Asia which would also give Guyanese and tourists coming from those areas another option for getting to and from Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
(name and address supplied)
Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to Mr. Kit Nascimento, Public Relations Consultant to Ogle Airport Inc. for any comments he may wish to make.
