The closure of this country’s international airports as part of the measures to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has severely affected Ogle Airport Inc. (OAI), the company which manages the Eugene F. Correia International airport, causing layoffs, salary reductions and a staggering 45% loss of overall revenue, according to OAI spokesman Kit Nascimento.
Although local flights are allowed to operate, Nascimento said the measures instituted by the government are “unrealistic” and this has driven the noticeable reduction on domestic operations.
“Because of the lockdown on international traffic, the airport has lost 45 % of its overall revenue,” he told this newspaper in an interview last week.
“The domestic airlines have also had to substantially cut back on their domestic operations because of the limitations to border locations. Unrealistic rules by the COVID-19 Task Force, whereby domestic airlines can only take 50% load… have also reduced domestic operations,” he added.
The Chief Executive Officer of the airport, Anthony Mekdeci, according to Nascimento, is confined to his home but is doing an excellent job of managing its affairs. He explained that with Mekdeci being a person with a disability, he could not run the risk of going to the Ogle facility and works from home, from where “he maintains full control”.
On March 17, the authorities here announced that the two major airports would be closed to incoming international flights from midnight of March 18 for a two-week period. That period was subsequently extended until May.
Head of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Colonel (Ret’d) Egbert Field had explained that exceptions were made for outgoing cargo and medevac flights, technical stops for aircraft which would require fuel to proceed onwards to another destination, and special authorised flights.
LIAT, Gum Air and Trans Guyana Airways, which operate to Barbados, Trinidad and Suriname, have all suspended operations.
Nascimento said that in addition to the suspended operations of the airport’s major non-local carriers, Caribbean Airlines was about to start up operations to Trinidad and Barbados but could not do so anymore. OAI, anticipating that it would have been a boost to its revenue and traveller traffic for this country, had spent significant sums in anticipation of these operations, “which, of course, have not materialised”.
Last year, also, he pointed out, the airport put in very costly infrastructure in taxiways to prepare for the CAL operations.
“Because of the international lockdown, travellers to CJIA from Haiti and Cuba who were passing through Guyana to onward destinations via the domestic airlines have stopped coming here with the attendant reduction in operations by the domestic airlines,” he lamented.
“Travellers are now few and far between anyway because people are afraid to travel or cannot afford it with the new economic reality,” he added, while also noting that the airport is hard pressed to reduce costs to deal with the reduction in revenue it has suffered.
The GCAA has express-ed concern over “price gouging” by the local airlines in wake of the measures taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
But both the Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana (AOAG) and the National Air Transport Association (NATA) have rejected this claim, saying they were concerned over the accusation by the GCAA.
The AOAG, which comprises Trans Guyana Air-ways, JAGS Aviation, Wings Aviation and Roraima Airways (which is also a member of NATA), emphasised that its members have not increased their prices in spite of the restrictions imposed on the industry by the COVID-19 Task Force through the GCAA.
The Association explained that the shutdown of almost all passenger operations in the interior have led to a more than a 50% reduction of all flights and making the removal of VAT “ineffective and leaving our members struggling to stay in business”.
The AOAG assured that since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, its members have introduced stringent protocols to ensure the safety of its passengers, including 100% temperature testing of all passengers and staff, sanitising of aircraft before every flight, the compulsory wearing of face masks and hand sanitising before passengers and crew board aircraft. All cargo is similarly sanitised.
Despite these protocols, the Association lamented that the COVID-19 Task Force has further enforced a 50% passenger restriction – which was initially set at 75% – on all domestic flights. In addition, the Task Force has stopped all passenger flights to border destinations, which, “inexplicably”, have included Matthews Ridge and Port Kaituma, even though these border locations were already closed off and a No-Fly Order was in place for all foreign travellers.
The AOAG said that it has discussed these matters with the GCAA, advising that the measures being enforced by the COVID-19 Task Force are “excessive”, given the mitigation measures already in place against the risk of spreading the virus, and that these measures have been taken “without sufficient regard for the negative economic impact on the hinterland communities.”
‘Salaries cut’
Nascimento said that restrictions from the authorities have also seen OAI having to cut staff and the salaries of some of its top-tier earners to adjust economically. “Roughly 10% of staff, mainly those on probation, have been laid off and staff salaries and allowances have been cut from the top down. Staff have also been sent on leave. In addition, drastic cost cutting measures have had to be put in place,” he said. “…There has been a bit of reduction of salaries at the higher levels of pay at the airport on a flattening scale. Not everybody has had reductions. We have maintained ourselves by that means,” he added.
All capital projects planned “have now been shelved for the time being,” he further said.
Nascimento stressed that the airport is a private one and is not subsidised by government so the impact felt at Ogle would be different from that of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA). “Like the rest of all business places, we are a private airport so we are not subsidised by the government. So if we don’t make money we have to face the financial consequences of those losses,” he said.
OIA continues to monitor the situation and is concerned about the overall impact of COVID-19 on its populace and economy. “We are concerned, like every business organisation, as to the degree to which protecting the country and ourselves from the virus is balanced against the need for economic viability. That is the challenge that faces the rest of the world,” he said.
But OIA will continue to abide by the rules set and hopes that the situation will be returned to normal soonest.
“We at the airport, we are a public facility and we are governed by the rules and regulations of the GCAA and have to comply with those rules and regulations,” Nascimento said.
