Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) Garvin Medera yesterday met with private sector stakeholders as part of efforts to build stronger ties with the local market and says the carrier remains keen on offering Guyanese direct flights.
Stabroek News understands that Medera who arrived in Guyana yesterday and CAL’s Country Manager Carl Stuart met with several stakeholders including the Private Sector Commission (PSC), the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) and the National Air Transport Association (NATA) to discuss ways in which they can collaborate and strengthen ties.
Speaking at a press conference held yesterday, the CEO expressed gratitude for the opportunity to visit Guyana and meet with relevant stakeholders.
“We have a proud relationship with Guyana that spans several decades and for us, this year it is really about building on that legacy, and by building I mean we want to get to a point where we are actually part of the communities we serve,” Medera remarked.
“There are a lot of gaps in regional travel and we at Caribbean Airlines have taken up the mandate to fill these gaps. But more than air transport we are interested in becoming the partner with each of our markets that we work in and that means understanding more than the transportation needs; it means understanding the concerns that we have in Guyana, the concerns that we have in Jamaica, Trinidad etc… We see these meetings today as the starting point for all of that and we at CAL are committed to serve Guyana in the future, improving the way as we go along.” the CEO further stated.
Meanwhile, President of NATA, Captain Gerry Gouveia whose meeting with the CEO was slated to follow yesterday’s press conference, explained that the inclusion of CAL as a member of NATA would see the aviation sector being able to benefit from the airline’s wealth of knowledge and experience in aviation.
“Caribbean Airlines because of its experience would bring a lot of value to NATA and so when the CEO expressed interest in NATA we were very happy,because CAL could help us by bringing worldwide aviation experience to the table, help us in discussions and even deliberations as we make the case to government to move aviation forward,” he added.
Commenting directly on the possibility of taking up NATA membership, Medera said, “We are very interested in the discussions to possibly join NATA… we see these organizations as key stakeholders in Guyana and we see it as a start from the perspective of understanding our customer needs, understanding how we need to adapt our service but we also see it as a start on our vision to better connect the Caribbean.”
Launched in 2015, NATA is a broad-based aviation association which integrates the views, interests and needs of all aviation stakeholders including pilots, engineers, Air Traffic Controllers, mechanics, flight attendants, owners, and operators, among other personnel.
Stabroek News understands that CAL, which is already a member of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), could be the first international carrier to become a member of NATA once an agreement is reached.
Notwithstanding, the association is also said to have had talks with the likes of Aruba Air and Suriname Airways on becoming NATA members.
Unjust
On a different note, Gouveia explained though CAL has been servicing Guyana for in excess of 70 years, there have been criticisms of the airline which he believes are unjust.
“Sometimes I believe that there has been a lot of bashing of Caribbean Airlines in ways that I believe are very unfair, but we want to see the work of Caribbean Airlines continue even as Guyana moves off of this threshold and on to the next decade when we are expecting a massive economic boom in Guyana,” he remarked.
This apart, Gouveia said he looks forward to more local content by the airline, an issue that was mentioned during the meeting with the PSC yesterday morning.
“I think one of the things we spoke of during the meeting with the PSC is the issue of local content and while CAL is a Trinidadian carrier, we didn’t want it to continue to be a Trinidadian carrier posing as a Caribbean carrier and so we wanted you for example in your services in Guyana to demonstrate not only in your back offices but in the front offices of your operations, Guyanese content,” NATA’s President said.
“We would also like to see Caribbean Airlines service Guyana more with direct flights into Toronto and Miami and New York from Guyana. Trinidad has a good partnership with Guyana but with the advent of our economic explosion that is very imminent that direct services out of Guyana is very important for us,” he added.
Similar sentiments were shared by Chairman of the PSC Desmond Sears who publicly welcomed CAL’s interaction with the PSC.
“We did have a pretty good meeting with the CEO and GM, which was a follow up to an initiative that Caribbean Airlines took in September to engage the private sector and businesses,” Sears said, nothing further that the PSC is at the moment trying to advance those discussions through frequent interactions.
Meanwhile, Medera said the number one challenge in this market remains the inability to originate flights from Guyana.
“Based on the regulations we have to route all flights through Port of Spain before we come to Guyana which means there is an in transit experience and that experience is something that we are hoping to improve; it could be solved ultimately if we get the opportunity to start and end flights in Guyana which is what we want to do. We are very much interested in setting up that base so that there is no need for passengers to in-transit anywhere and that is why we are happy the PSC is on board with that idea and that we are working the right stakeholders to ensure that that could become a reality,” the CEO added.
He noted too that the airline continues to be open to being a part of a competitive market, an element which he believes is important for the people of Guyana.
Notwithstanding, Medera said, “For Caribbean Airlines we are looking more to connect more of the markets together to help us build the economies of scale and eventually pass on those economies of scale to the people of Guyana.”
“We are always working towards that goal of providing reliable, better value transport in the region and the innovations that we have started with the renewals of our fleet for instance will also help us to reduce fuel expenditure and maintenance cost. So internally we are optimizing our operational expenditure all with the vision of passing that on to passengers and stimulating growth in the region,” the CEO added.
