With the Canawaima Ferry Service not operational, local airline Trans Guyana Airways (TGA) has seen a slight increase in flights between Guyana and Suriname.
The company made the announcement during a press conference last Friday.
TGA Operations Manager Dale King told Stabroek News that the company has seen more persons travelling to Suriname on their flights. “There has been a slight increase in flights but it fluctuates. It is not so much of a demand to put additional flights on the schedule. A lot of persons still use the ‘backtrack’ route [but] there has been a slight increase,” King said.
TGA offers two flights daily on weekdays and one flight on Saturdays and Sundays from Ogle-to Zorg-en-Hoop.
The Guyana-Suriname ferry service has been nonoperational for almost three months and there has been no word on its resumption.
On May 27, the Management of the Guyana-Suriname Ferry Service, through the Department of Public Information (DPI), announced the suspension of operations. Terminal Manager Gale Culley-Greene had told DPI that the Canawaima Ferry had been experiencing mechanical difficulties for some time and a decision was taken to have the vessel assessed and repaired.
Government had expressed concern at the inconvenience to travellers while saying that this country had been funding most of the maintenance over the years. It had also noted that the vessel’s engine “had been limping for some time and [the ferry] was being towed by a tug” during its trips between the two countries.
The service is offered through a joint venture, the Canawaima Management Company, which was launched between the governments of Guyana and Suriname in 1998. Financial and operational arrangements for the service, as outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding, fall to both countries, to be shared equally.
Since the suspension of the ferry service, travel along the backtrack route between the two countries’ borders has significantly increased. Currently, passengers are required to travel to Moleson Creek from where the ferry would have operated to get their passports stamped by immigration officers and then return to Springlands to board one of the boats operating along the route.
