Work on the second 2000-ft phase of the runway at the Ogle International Airport is expected, weather permitting, to be completed by May this year and flights from Caribbean countries could be landing at Ogle by early next year, Chief Executive Officer of the Ogle International Airport Project Anthony Mekdeci told Stabroek Business.
In an extended interview last week, Mekdeci told Stabroek Business that apart from the two separate 2000-ft phases in which the runway has been constructed, the project has secured official approval for the addition of a further 200 feet based on a request made by LIAT to accommodate its DASH 8 class aircraft. LIAT’s request for the further extension of the runway is designed to enable the carrier to accommodate additional passengers and to fly at its maximum takeoff weight. Mekdeci said the additional 200 ft extension to the runway will not affect the completion date.
The Ogle International Airport, which commenced in December 2002, is being privately run by the private aircraft owners comprising the Guyana Aircraft Owners Association.
The first phase of the runway was completed since 2006 and while the second phase was scheduled for completion in August last year Mekdeci explained that weather-related circumstances had been the primary reason why the contractors had fallen behind the scheduled completion deadline. However, according to the project’s Chief Executive Officer, the airport, which was granted international Port of Entry status last year already receives ten weekly international flights operated by the Surinamese passenger services Blue Wing and Gun Air and the local service Trans-Guyana. Mekdeci said when the project commenced in December 2002 Ogle was accommodating 60 movements (aircraft takeoffs and landings) per day. That number has increased to150 movements today while the number of people passing through the airport has jumped from 30,000 to 75,000 annually.
The arrival of LIAT here following the completion of the runway will push the number of passengers passing through the airport to around 100,000 annually. “It means that we will have to install larger facilities at the terminal as well as ticket counters and baggage check-in facilities. We are also going to have to expand the departure lounge at the terminal and expand both the departure lounge and the car park at the terminal,” Mekdeci said. Noting that “the runway itself is not everything,” he said there are taxiways to be built and an apron to park airplanes. “In addition to these requirements we also need to put in those that are concerned with certification including runway lights, precision approach path indicators, airport security fence and navigational aids. All of these things have to be put in place before LIAT can come here. We are probably looking at the end of 2011 before we are ready to accept LIAT,” Mekdeci said.
“LIAT has been planning for this for about a year and a half. There is no question that they are ready and that they are coming here unless some entirely unforeseen circumstance arises.”
The ongoing project is being financed through a grant from the European Union which is being administered by the Government of Guyana and Mekdeci assured this newspaper that the project “has no money problems. The financing is already in place to complete the project. Such delays as we have had have had to do with weather and other considerations not with financing,” Mekdeci said.
The veteran aviation expert told Stabroek Business, however, that the airport felt the need the complete the project as quickly as possible since investors have, over the past ten years, never received a dividend. He explained that the project was a long-term one and that the monies which he expects the airport to generate will be earned later, not now. “That has to do with the massive infrastructure development that we have had to put in,” he said.
Mekdeci told Stabroek Business that once Ogle begins to receive flights from the region, access by Guyanese travellers to the Caribbean will become limitless. “Once the movement of aircraft from the Caribbean to Ogle begins, the issue of frequency will rise. Smaller aircraft with limited numbers of passengers will mean more flights – perhaps several at different times. The frequency will provide travellers out of Guyana with more options,” Mekdeci said.
With regard to the likelihood that the full and final completion of the project could see regular flights between Ogle and areas in Venezuela, Mekdeci said some carriers had conducted investigation into possible flights from Puerto Ordaz in Venezuela where there is a large Guyanese community but had found it financially infeasible.
Asked about the possibility that local investors may also move to acquire additional and larger aircraft Mekdeci said while he believed that that was “a distinct possibility” the situation was much more complex than simply acquiring more aircraft. “Along with the aircraft one would also require the route rights to fly into other countries.
We have bilateral agreements with Suriname and Brazil under which there may, perhaps, be scope for us to operate a service to those countries without a reciprocating service. But it is for entities like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority to secure the route rights in accordance with those bilateral agreements. If you don’t have a route structure to support the aircraft you have no carrier,” Mekdeci said.
