Hundreds of Guyanese pilots, engineers working with regional, international airlines
Private aviation companies want government to provide provisional approval to allow the Ogle Airport to be used for regional flights.
Chief Executive Officer of Roraima Airways Captain Gerry Gouveia has told Stabroek Busi-ness that “all of the measures and mechanisms” necessary to allow such permission to be given are in place.
Gouveia told Stabroek Business that in the absence of such official permission Roraima Air-ways’ daily flight to Port-Of-Spain to fulfil its parcel delivery service contract with Fedex has to fly from Ogle to Timehri before it could undertake what is, in effect, an international flight.
“Provisional approval should be given so that we can begin to use Ogle. Apart from the fact that we have Customs, CANU, security and Immigration officials installed at Ogle, all of the physical and technical facilities necessary for its use are entirely in place.” Gouveia said.
Meanwhile, according to Gouveia, inadequate remuneration and the slow growth of the aviation sector has resulted in the emigration of hundreds of Guyanese pilots, engineers, aircraft mechanics and other skilled aviation workers to the regional and international aviation sector over the past twenty years. And the loss of these skills will continue to have an effect on the development of the local aviation sector Gouveia added.
“Some of our best pilots and engineers are employed in the regional and international aviation industry and many are doing high level jobs with international airlines, Gouveia said.
Gouveia, a former Chief Pilot with the Guyana Defence Force, said that the weaknesses of the local aviation industry had to be seen against the backdrop of the critical role that the industry had to play in the economic development of the country and the development of the hinterland communities. “The link between aviation and development in a country with thousands of square miles of hinterland that cannot be accessed by road cannot be overestimated. Com-munication between the coast and the interior has critical implications for the development of several key sectors of the economy as well as for creating and sustaining development-related communication links with interior communities,” Gouveia said.
Gouveia’s observations come against the backdrop of differences between the state aviation authorities and the privately-owned aircraft industry over skills deficiencies at the GCAA which he said the industry was seeking to resolve amicably. “The fact of the matter is that much of the skills in the local aviation industry are available only in the private sector and it is difficult to envisage the development of the industry except through cooperation and mutual respect,” Gouveia said.
Local aircraft owners and pilots have pointed to what they say are “serious deficiencies” in the aviation conditions in Guyana. According to Gouveia those difficulties included the absence of beacons at interior airstrips and the state of disrepair into which airstrips owned by government have fallen. “Aircraft owners find themselves in a position where they must absorb millions of dollars in damage to aircraft suffered while using these defective strips.”
Private aviators have also noted what they say is the non-existence of a state-provided aviation search and rescue system. Recently, a spokesman for the industry told Stabroek Business that while the Guyana Defence Force has substantive responsibility for aviation search and rescue the decision to use army pilots and aircraft for commercial purposes had meant that much of its equipment had fallen into disrepair. “Apart from the fact that the army ought not to have been allowed to compete with private companies in the sector we now have a situation where the army’s resources are not available for one of the purposes that it is intended,” the official said.
Gouveia told Stabroek Business that the state was now forced to rely on the private sector to respond to search and rescue requirements. What concerns the industry in these circumstances is that given the preoccupation of commercial aviators with their own business it is entirely conceivable that pilots and aircraft may not be readily available to respond to such emergencies.
According to Gouveia while there were some indications that government was seeking to respond to some of the problems in the aviation sector, progress was “far too slow.”
Gouveia told Stabroek Business that the nature of the aviation sector in Guy-ana, “particularly the underdeveloped state of the industry” meant that the laws regulating the industry needed to seek compliance with International Civil Aviation (ICAO) regulations while taking into account the objective realities of the Guyana situation. “There really is no way that we can implement laws and regulations that parallel those that apply in North America and Europe without closing down the entire industry. What we need to do is to ensure the safety and efficiency of the sector within the framework of laws and regulations that take account of our conditions,” Gouveia said.
