-as runway light woes continue
Runway light woes continued at the Cheddi Jagan Inter-national Airport yesterday as airlines were restricted to daylight flights and last night’s flights were cancelled. Officials were struggling to find suitable alternatives following major transformer and cable damage from lightning, most recently on Monday, which caused the lights to go out.
Speaking with this newspaper late yesterday afternoon, airport Chief Executive Officer Ramesh Ghir reporterd that the runway lights were still down and would not be operational last night.
According to Ghir engineers were working around the clock, but he cautioned that the damage was severe and so repairing it would be a tedious process.
He explained too that the airport’s management was in discussion with the manufacturer of the runway lights who had given the opinion that the amount and frequency of lightning to which the runway lights’ cables had been exposed may have caused them to become degraded.
He said the advice of the manufacturers would continue to be sought while a number of other options which he did not disclose were being explored.
Asked whether the airlines had been informed about the status of the repairs, Ghir responded that management had been briefing all stakeholders and updating them on the progress of the work.
Meanwhile, Caribbean Airlines has been feeling the brunt of the inconvenience although Country Manager Carlton DeFour was yesterday hopeful that he would get some good word from the officials concerned.
Defour in an invited comment to this newspaper said so far the non-functioning lights were proving a major inconvenience. He noted that Monday night’s flights had to be delayed so the aircraft could operate in the daylight.
“It’s a major inconvenience for us, particularly for those passengers coming in from Miami that already have to wait a long time in Piarco before they come across. So I am hoping that something is done,” DeFour said.
Meantime, he stated that the airline was trying to manage its day flights and ensure that these were always on time.
Asked about the future of the airline’s night flights, DeFour said that he was waiting to find out what systems would be put in place and whether or not the airport would go the way of suspending night flights until everything got back to normal.
Liat chose to postpone its flights on Monday night. A representative from the airline explained to this newspaper yesterday that the latest flight leaves Guyana at 6.30pm, although yesterday it was forced to postpone this flight as well. The representative said that while the passengers were disappointed in the delay, they mostly understood that it was not directly the fault of the airline.
This newspaper was told by a passenger that he had made calls to the airline at around 2 yesterday afternoon and had been advised that he should make his way up to the airport as soon as possible since the airline was trying to take out some passengers from 6.30 flight on an earlier one.
He said by the time he reached the airport he was told that the flight had been cancelled causing him major inconvenience. He complained that there had obviously been a breakdown of communication at some level since during the course of yesterday the airline had given the assurance that the flights were still on.
According to him, other passengers were left in the same situation and angered by the fact that the airline did not do better in informing its passengers of the cancellation.
Delta Airlines, on the other hand, remains unaffected by the current situation, because all its flights in and out of Guyana are scheduled for daylight hours, Manager Junior Horatio told this newspaper yesterday in an invited comment.
Following heavy lightning on July 22 the lights on the Air Traffic Control Tower were completely out of power for a few hours after a transformer and the stand-by generator developed radiator problems.
Last Thursday the lights went out again, and while attempts were made to have the lights up and running, the airport CEO in a brief interview with this newspaper on Saturday admitted that the system was still not up 100 per cent.
He had also said that a complete review of the system was planned. As of next week, air traffic is expected to build up as thousands of persons from different countries are expected here for Carifesta which starts on August 22.
This is really bad for business, and an inconvenience to incoming, and outgoing passengers who has to spend a lot of money to come to guyana and can,t arrive on time. CJIA needs to get it’s act together and upgrade it system.
Industry critics were concern when the management of Guyana’s International Airport was assigned to Ramesh Ghir. His inexperience and thin resume were cited as the reason and they posited that his appointment was due to political leanings.
Now here we are… the major gateway to the country is seemingly undersupervised and is costing millions of dollars in lost business. The aging infrastructure at the airport is decades old. No plans are in place to replace or even upgrade them and this poses a threat to the lives and safety of passengers and planes that use the facility.
stop pussy-footing with this problem, get the job done along with a back up system.
Incompetent incompetent incompetent!
only now you know this!!!
This is beyond incompetent!! I remember in 1994 GAC (Guyana Airways) coming in and they were minibuses lining both side of the runway to provide light on many occasion to land.
So 15 years after and they still figuring it out. Come on how much longer do the government have to be a probation before becoming a competent and experienced one.
the answer to your question is; “as long as the people keep voting apan jaht”
And you they government talk about increasing tourism. What a joke!!
Yes we gan over take Barbados and St Lucia on the tourism scale.
So don’t even say otherwise. Only day flight will bring in the tourists.
Can’t you see all the tourists lining up to go to GEO> Yeahhh right!!!
How these worthlessness does not occur in other places around the world, I never heard anything like this happening in even Haiti,and this is what some bloggers are claiming is progress being made in Guyana, what impression would this convey to a first time visitor it is time that the Government be more serious,is this how you are looking to attract tourism to the country?The CEO if it was in any other country would have been severly reprimanded, this is the height of Guyana consistent embarassments, what would happen if a plane has to stop for an emergency landing at night or someone has a medical emergency what would happen? Come on do better than that.
Let me also add that the CEO and any /all other malfunctionaries should be immediately replaced. Fire them all and get people who can do the maintenance properly!
I remember my granddaughter being a few months old and travelling to Guyana when they had this type of problem. She is a high school sophomore now and – THE PROBLEM STILL EXISTS!
This in a country that the government is touting tourism as a means of helping the economy!
Notice also that only “Minister Benn” had some comments – so vague that I don’t remember them. What about the Boss? Any comments promises??? This silence is deafening!
Joke,joke,joke How can a major facility lke this not working,Does our President know of this situation? Come mr.Rameessh Ghur a name like that, you let the country Down.Shame! No Excuses thats a major airport. Go back to the goood old JUG LAMP light a few and the planes willl land !
Welcome to Guyana………… daytime landing only permitted…..if it is overcast tough luck go away……..come back another day.
If it ain’t one thing it’s another!!!
Guyana will forever be the laughing stock.
It has always been a laughing stock.
Now, more than ever the jokes are increasing and this regime is clueless with mis-management and croynism at an all time high.
The high tide has come in and taken the people with brains away.
and the beat goes on
kaieteur news says they cant decide if they’re going to get lights from barbados or trinidad…and it is interesting to note that the soon to be international airport at ogle has lights that does not meet international aviation standards, as the option of borrowing those were also entertained
way to go Guyana!!
Haven’t you realised that they dont know what hrey are doing, they are probably equating the airport to a car park. Knowledge is lacking. Have they resolved the situation with the aviation inspector yet?????????
Oh my beautiful Guyana , when will we get things done right i can see why we have so many young and old citizens running away looking for better living else where,too many square pegs masquerading as leaders .
Cake shop mentality of this regime is taking Guyana back to the stone age.
I wonder why the tourists aren’t coming in the millions to visit!!!