A “financially sound” Roraima Airways is making significant investments aimed at expanding both its aviation and hospitality operations over the next two years, Group Chief Executive Officer, Captain Gerry Gouveia, told his staff at a special meeting held on Monday to announce a range of activities to mark the 20th anniversary of the launch of the company.
In his address, an upbeat Gouveia told more than 140 of his 200-odd employees that the company will shortly be completing its new hangar at the Ogle Airport and is in the process of adding a new aircraft to its existing fleet. Additionally, Gouveia said that Roraima will now be pressing ahead with long-held plans for the creation of a new hotel at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport over the next two years.
While stopping short of going into details on either of the two projects Gouveia told Stabroek Business that the decision to undertake both exercises at this time reflects the company’s confidence in the soundness of its footing and in its ability to grow even further. Roraima’s expansion plans also include the installation of a new industrial kitchen to serve the Roraima Duke Lodge Hotel and the creation of a new banqueting hall, all within the two-year timeframe.
Roraima Airways was set up in November 1992, commencing its operations as a domestic airline offering charter services to Caribbean and continental destinations primarily for business and executive clientele. Since then the company has expanded its operations to include 10 distinct services comprising its passenger and cargo air charter service, ground handling operations at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, the Roraima Duke Lodge and Roraima Residency Inn hotels, the Arrowpoint Nature Resort and the Roraima Air Medical Evacuation Service.
Gouveia, a former Chief Pilot with the Guyana Defence Force who held the rank of Major has long been at the forefront of the company’s passenger and cargo air charter service and its medical evacuation service.
On Monday, in a thinly veiled reference to the ongoing investigation into allegations that a Roraima worker had tried to smuggle drugs into a waiting aircraft on top of food Gouveia said that members of staff who sought to violate systems in place at Guyana’s international airport to staunch the illegal flow of drugs out of the country ran the risk of compromising the image of the company and affecting its standing with its clients. Gouveia said that the issue of the integrity of Roraima employees assigned to the company’s operations at the airport has been a matter of constant discussion and focus over the years. “We understand the vulnerability of our employees who serve in various capacities at the airport and our policy has been to meet with them and brief them continually on the importance of not falling victim to what might seem like attractive offers but what, at the end of the day, can ruin them, compromise the company and tarnish the image of the country,” Gouveia told Stabroek Business.
At Monday’s meeting Gouveia introduced a four-member Commission of Enquiry headed by Attorney-At-Law James Bond and including Head of RK’s Security Service Roshan Khan, appointed by the company to review its operating systems at the airport and to make recommendations aimed at ensuring that such rules and procedures are consistent with the overriding objective of ensuring that laid-down procedures associated with airport security are followed.
