CJIA ‘up and running’ following setbacks

Aug 20, 2008 News

The Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) was up and running yesterday after a hectic night of repairing faulty Guyana Power and Light lines, which caused a communication disruption.

Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn confirmed that GPL wires indeed disrupted the radio communications at the airport, and he has since stated that the problem has been rectified.

On Monday, employees at the airport were again in a state of panic when the communication system was disrupted.

Kaieteur News was told that two arcing GPL lines, which were not properly connected, caused the reception on all frequencies to be disrupted at about 14:45 hrs.

As a result, controllers were unable to communicate with planes arriving as well as those that were passing in the country’s airspace.

One flight, which departed Boa Vista, Brazil, was forced to return to that airport. A Liat flight was also delayed in Trinidad.

Roraima Airways, which has a contract with Fedex to transport cargo from Guyana to Trinidad, was also delayed. That plane, however, landed late Monday evening.

Over the past two weeks, the airport has been constantly shutdown or severely affected because of technical difficulties.

On July 29 last, lightning knocked out the electricity supply to the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) tower and the entire airport.

However, the situation worsened after the back up generator went down when a flight was about to land at the airport.

Following that incident, the facility was again shutdown after all the runway lights went down. Guyana managed to borrow portable lights from Barbados and those were installed on Friday.

The Minister told the media last week that it will take a number of weeks before the regular lighting system at the airport is fully restored.