Prolonged differences between and amongst operators in the country’s aviation sector based at the Ogle International Airport now seem set to degenerate into an open confrontation. Several of the smaller operators have joined ranks to protest what they say is the use by the management of Trans Guyana Airways of its clout at the levels of the both the local Aircraft Owners Association (AOA) as well as Ogle Airport Inc (OAI), the body managing the airport, to exert control over operations at Ogle to the detriment of others.
Just how serious the situation has become is reflected in a simultaneous objection by eight aviation operations at Ogle to what they say is a prevailing management regime at Ogle that compromises the principle of a level playing field and even seriously hampers their ability to properly run their respective businesses.
On Wednesday, just hours before 10 operators in the aviation sector announced the establishment of a new aviation body, the National Air Transport Association (NATA), this newspaper was afforded the opportunity of hearing some of the issues between them and the OAI.
The companies that agreed to provide the Stabroek Business with a collective briefing were Air Services Ltd, Roraima Airways, Oxford Aviation, Hinterland Aviation, Jags Aviation, Hopkinson Mining Logistics and Wings.
High on the list of grouses raised were what the small operators said were the high prices being charged to lease land at Ogle and conditionalities which they believe would provide the Correia Group (Trans Guyana), a competitor in the aviation industry, with access to information that would hand them a significant and unfair competitive advantage in the sector.
The mood of Wednesday’s encounter would appear to raise questions about the veracity of the claims made by Trans Guyana Chief Executive Officer Michael Correia during an interview with Stabroek Business just over a week ago in which he asserted the OAI was running the Ogle International Airport to high operating standards and that the smaller aviation companies operating out of Ogle were realizing significant growth in their businesses under the management.
That perspective was vigorously challenged by Oxford Aviation, one of the smaller operators at Ogle whose Chief Executive Officer Tricia Persaud related what she said was the company’s treatment at the hands of OAI that had forced her operations off of the Ogle Airport.
Small operators apart, Wednesday’s meeting was attended by Marketing Manager of Air Services Ltd (ASL) Annette Arjoon-Martins and Managing Director of Roraima Airways Gerry Gouviea who will serve as President and Vice President, respectively, of NATA.
ASL, particularly, has, over time, been engaged in confrontations with the Correia-led OAI which, five years ago, led to ASL’s resort to the Consumer and Competition Affairs Commission alleging OAI’s “abuse of a dominant position.”
The group places much of the blame for the current brouhaha at Ogle at the feet of government which it says had essentially allowed the status quo that now prevails at Ogle to materialize out of its failure, over a protracted period, to set up a body to oversee the operations at Ogle as was provided for in the Agreement. Gouveia stated that the problems that have arisen at Ogle over the years may well have been averted had the Oversight Committee been put in place.
On Wednesday this newspaper learnt that even as the new aviation group was preparing for its launch, individual operators were meeting with the OAI in the hope of seeking bilateral understandings that might improve their individual positions at Ogle though they agreed that what, in most cases, were identical problems, meant that collective approach was necessary. The observation was also made that once the status quo remained unchanged the smaller operators at Ogle will continue to play with a weak hand since their operational efficiency hinged heavily on their dependence on fuel and maintenance services and the rental of office space, services which were being provided by either OAI or a Correia-controlled company
