Latest update November 13th, 2024 1:00 AM
Feb 21, 2014 News
– Aviation officials
The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is making strides to secure Category One status for the country that would allow carriers from Guyana to fly directly to the United States of America. A timeline of 18 to 24 months was given for this and there is commitment by Government for the enabling funding.
According to Michael Correia, President of the Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana (AOAG) during a press conference held at the Guyana International Conference Centre, yesterday, US$2M was the amount identified to be expended over a two-year period.
Ogle International Airport Incorporated (OAI)’s Chief Executive Officer Anthony Mekdeci, in responding to a query about the importance of the Category One status, said it is a condition required by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to which Guyana is a signatory to the Conventions.
He emphasized that Category One status is a standard that is acceptable worldwide.
“For instance, the FAA does not permit a carrier from a country that doesn’t have Category One status to go to the US.”
Mekdeci related that the GCAA is planning to satisfy all the Conventions of ICAO to meet the requirements for Category One. Guyana is already 95 percent compliant with requirements of the Conventions and “work will be done over the next year or two for 100 percent compliance”.
Another important area that is directly linked to Guyana attaining Category One status is adequate Flight Operations Oversight. The need for Guyana having resident Flight Operations Oversight Officers to support the work of the Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Oversight System (CASSOS) was expressed by Correia.
While inspectors from CASSOS come every three to six months for oversight duties, the frequency which flight oversights are done needs to increase, given the traffic at the Ogle International Airport, he said.
“Today on a daily basis, our private sector aviation companies service the mining, forestry and tourism industries and our hinterland communities, on an average, with about 13,000 passengers and 150,000 pounds of cargo per month, a ten-fold increase.”
Correia emphasized that whatever is being done now is working, but it needs to be extended.
However, even without the resident inspectors, it appears that GCAA is making moves to have more CASSOS inspectors available to Guyana.
Annette Arjoon-Martins of Air Services Limited said that GCAA’s Director-General has been speaking with the Director-General of Trinidad and Tobago’s Civil Aviation Authority, who is also the head of CASSOS. She said that there are numerous Flight Operations Inspectors in Trinidad and Tobago, which is just about 50 minutes away from Guyana.
Meanwhile, Captain Gerry Gouveia of Roraima Airways Inc. said he is very pleased with the work of CASSOS, particularly since the officers are independent and have no vested interest in conducting their work in Guyana.
“In case of the flight Ops oversight many years ago throughout the world, the main focus was on maintenance oversight. Very few people considered flight operations significant enough to oversee that as well. But ICAO had come out with the standard and because the standard was there for flight operations oversight all the countries of the world started to put that in place.”
He explained that the Flight Operations Oversight Officers have to look at the entire operations of the companies and aircraft. In addition, Flight Operations Inspectors have to be well trained, a competent pilot, and have broad experience in flying various aircraft including turbo jet aircraft, he said.
According to Gouveia, about 10 years ago the Inter-American Development Bank had a US$30M loan programme in Guyana, which was tied to the Aviation Sector Reform Strategy.
It was very comprehensive for the upgrading of the entire infrastructure, law, regulation and the way the GCAA is structured to bring Guyana on par with the Caribbean and the rest of the world.
Gouveia believes Guyana has come a far way in this regard with having experienced pilots and CASSOS providing Flight Inspectorate services for the local aviation industry through contractual arrangement with government. “Because of this reform strategy, the entire industry was overhauled and a lot of systems were developed which Guyana didn’t have,” he added.
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