Dear Editor,
I just returned to Guyana in time to join the celebration for our nation’s Jubilee celebrations after having had a busy business trip negotiating for the expanding of the Dynamic flights between New York and Guyana.
On my return I was astonished to learn of the verbal abuse unleashed on me by Mr Mike Correia in the presence of President David Granger, senior members of the cabinet, members of the Diplomatic Corps and the full media corps at the renaming of the Ogle International Airport, primarily because I dared to represent the views of the nine dissatisfied aircraft operators at the Ogle Airport.
It is not unusual to watch Mr Correia cow others into silence during board meetings, this being one of the reasons I stayed away because of the hostility that predominates at meetings chaired by him. He is not an aviation professional of any sort and his embarrassing attempt at trying to drive a wedge between professional aviators is a cheap shot.
Mike Correia is extremely intolerant of opinions that are opposed to his own, but it is important to note that I represent NATA as its Vice President, (an organization that represents 9 of the 10 local aircraft operators) a responsibility I take very seriously. Therefore I view Mr Correia’s outrageous outburst as a clear demonstration of the disrespect he harbours for the other nine local operators at Ogle, as well as providing an opportunity for the persons sitting in the audience to see his true colours.
On a personal note, my wife and I are particularly saddened by his public demeaning of the little fortune which we have struggled to consolidate to invest in OAI while we were also struggling to build our company (Roraima Airways), which is a first generation family company being built from the ground up, while Mr Correia is managing a third generation company (the Correia Group) built by his grandparents.
I think it is important to highlight that the airport was leased to five aircraft operators with the clear understanding that the airport will be operated by those operators in a fair and equitable manner, a far cry from the anti-competitive environment that exists today.
Over the past 40 years, while Mr Correia’s father was continuing the building of their family’s gold-mining business, I was serving in the Guyana National Service, planting cotton at Kimbia, singing national songs, while learning to build my country by living and working in harmony with my Guyanese brothers and sisters from all walks of life across Guyana.
I was also serving my country as an army officer and military pilot flying dangerous Medivac missions both by day and by night between the mountains of the deep Mazaruni, bringing vital supplies to our Amerindian families living in the most remote areas of our country’s hinterland, all in the interest of contributing to making my country a better place.
The fact that Mr Correia attempted to belittle me in front of the President, Brigadier General David Granger, a man under whose command I had the honour and privilege of serving for more than a decade, is revealing.
Even as I write this letter, there is another controversy developing at the airport, where once again Mr Correia is attempting to move the engineering school away from the AOAG, into a private company owned by himself and Malcom Chan-a-Sue, a company which was registered within the past month.
It’s important to note that this school has been part of the AOAG for the past 20 years.
I have been a professional aviator for 40 years and I have never experienced such an acrimoniously unhealthy atmosphere as exists today at Ogle.
A lot was said and written publicly about the challenges we are facing at Ogle airport.
I would therefore close by saying it is my fervent hope that the government intervene urgently in a meaningful and even-handed way to halt and reverse the unhealthy and deteriorating inter-personal relationships between Mr Correia and all the other aircraft operators which are not healthy for the airport or for the Guyana aviation industry.
Yours faithfully,
Gerry Gouveia
CEO
Roraima Airways
