Government’s announcement in the 2016 budget presentation that it intends to make a multi-billion-dollar investment in shoring up the country’s aviation infrastructure has elicited an enthusiastic but measured response from the owner of one of the country’s high-profile aviation entities.
Roraima Airways Chief Executive Officer Gerry Gouveia has told the Stabroek Business that while the disclosures in last Friday’s budget presentation are likely to meet with the approval of operators in the aviation sector there will be concern that the administration act with due haste to put the measures promised in the budget in place.
“Obviously, what was disclosed in the budget presentation reflects a recognition of what is now the critical importance of properly connecting the coast to the hinterland. It remains for us to get it done efficiently and in the shortest possible time,” Gouveia said.
Executive Officer Gerry Gouveia
In last Friday’s budget presentation Finance Minister Winston Jordan declared, “The growth of the air services industry, with injections of new and improved technologies and the ever-expanding list of travel destinations being offered to our people” had induced government to allocate $5.2 billion in this year’s budget, for, among other things, “a massive upgrade of our airports and aerodromes” as part of the “continued development of the air services industry, including the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
Jordan has said that apart from “earmarking over $2 billion, in the medium term” for an “Airstrips and Aerodromes Improvement Programme” government was also pursuing financing for the upgrading of hinterland airstrips at Eteringbang, Annai, Paramakatoi, Kurupung, Kato, Kopinang and Monkey Mountain, among others.
Lauding the disclosures as “good for the aviation industry and for Guyana as a whole” Gouveia said that the focus on upgrading and rehabilitating to aviation ought to pay critical attention to “how the money is spent” and must proceed against the backdrop of ongoing consultation with the aviation sector. “Personally, I have received no notification of these developments but I expect that at some point I will be consulted,” Gouveia said.
The veteran aviator has outlined what he believes are the priority works to be undertaken, naming the upgrading and maintenance of hinterland airstrips as a critical element in the process. “The condition of the airstrips themselves has taken a toll on aircraft using them and purely from the standpoint of maintenance issues the matter of surfacing and leveling of runways becomes a priority issue,” he added.
From a safety standpoint, meanwhile, Gouveia said the trees standing in the arrival and departure paths of aircraft ought to be removed as part of the rehabilitation process whilst airstrip security ought to address the fencing of airstrips against incursion by unauthorized persons and animals. “The day-to-day management of those airstrips ought to take account of a security presence to ensure the integrity of fencing. At Mahdia, for example, there is evidence that the security fencing has been breached,” he said.
Government, meanwhile, is insisting that the introduction of weather reporting infrastructure to facilitate interior air traffic is long overdue. Specifically, he recommends that pilots flying in the interior should be provided with safety-related information regarding winds, clouds and wet airstrips among other safety-related considerations. “What we have had in the budget is an indication of a promise in monetary terms that must be translated into targeted action,” Gouveia declared.
And according to Gouveia the upgrading of the status of hinterland aviation would be incomplete without “serious and focused attention” on building search and rescue capacity. “While there are the skills necessary to undertake search and rescue missions it is the equipment that is lacking. We need a twin-engine helicopter, for example, for search and rescue missions. The irony is that there is state-owned Bell 412 helicopter languishing at Timehri that can be rehabilitated for the purpose.”
In his budget presentation Jordan had alluded to the improved facilities at the Ogle International Airport which he said had “led to increased services to multiple local and overseas destinations, inclusive of commercial flights at nights.” These developments, Gouveia said were a tribute to the work of the privately-owned local aviation sector. The extension and upgrade of the Ogle runway, according to Jordan, have “transformed the airport into a regional hub, linking Georgetown to Suriname, Barbados and Trinidad.” Gouveia noted that this “more than justifies government’s decision to lease the facility to the aviation sector.
“What is significant about the government’s seeming recognition of the need for more attention to be paid to Ogle is the fact that there is now an urgent need to expand the airport to prevent the serious challenge that international operations are posing to what is a growing domestic operations sub-sector.”
Last year an ongoing controversy amongst aviation companies based at Ogle flared afresh resulting in the creation of a new body embracing the vast majority of aviation companies, a circumstance which, Gouveia said, was the result of a situation in which the management of the airport was dominated by individual corporate interests. “That too is a situation which the government needs to address, going forward,” Gouveia added.
