The Barbados-loaned portable runway lights arrived in the country yesterday and by early afternoon had already gone through a test run and night flights were expected to resume last night at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).
The Barbadian authorities also flew in one of their engineers who installed the lights. Airport CEO Ramesh Ghir reported yesterday that the engineer who brought in the lights also ensured that they were up and running. He also noted that a shipment of spare bulbs on order is scheduled to arrive shortly.
Ghir said the portable back–up system is adequate for night landing. He noted too that the airlines have since been informed that night landing has resumed.
The main runway lights system is still not functional but efforts are being made for the engineers who installed the system back in 2004 to return to resolve the current problems.
The system had several hiccups and went down totally a week ago, forcing airlines to make alternative arrangements with their night flights. The airport over the last few days has only been operating day flights and Caribbean Airlines, the most affected airline, was forced to accommodate passengers in Trinidad when they are in-transit before flying them to Guyana the next day.
