Dear Editor,
I am responding to Mr. Freddie Kissoon’s letter captioned `These are questions I would like Mr. Ramkarran to answer’ (SN Oct 22). The tenor of the letter is unacceptable from someone of academic standing.
It is downright nasty making insinuations, innuendoes, and allegations without evidence. I am afraid Mr. Kissoon continues to personalize issues.
Freddie is a good writer but I can’t quite figure out why he attacks people and why he writes in such a nasty tone against reputable people on trivial, frivolous matters.
It seems from his tone, Freddie has something personal against Ramkarran and his family because of ongoing personal comments about them in his writings. Other writings in his daily column have targeted other leading PPP officials and opposition politicians – not giving a sense of objectivity.
Freddie is a talented writer, a courageous one. But he will lose credibility if he continues to target and attack personalities instead of focusing on issues. Freddie needs to be fair, balanced and more objective in his writings.
Of the several questions Freddie asked, I am somewhat familiar with GAC as I wrote extensively on this subject when GAC was in operation. I think Mr. Trevor Budhu is right in his letter captioned `Mr Ramkarran had nothing to do with the day-to-day operations of GAC’ (SN Oct 24).
I was saddened to see the carrier collapse and have consistently advocated for its resuscitation. I spoke with several government officials (when the airline was in operations), employees in NY, and owners of travel agencies about the carrier. There were a variety of factors that led to the demise of GAC but the primary culprit was poor management that was further aggravated by political interference.
New York was the mainstay of the carrier because the bulk of its revenue came from travellers from JFK. Had the airline allowed its NY Manager, Mr. Billy Braithwaite, to run the operations without interference, the carrier would have survived and maybe even made a profit.
The airline had three (unpaid) individuals appointed in NY as advisors supposedly to give advice on NY operations. But none of the three knew anything about airline service or operations. The views of leading captains of the travel industry like Lall Somwaru and Jim Bacchus were rejected.
My advice and recommendations on how to rescue the airline were not even considered even though I wrote extensively in the NY weeklies on travel during the 1990s.
When the airline ceased operations, I got a Guyanese (involved in Yankee baseball) to agree to commit US $7 million to revive the airline. Instead, the government unwisely handed over GAC to a group of businessmen who knew nothing about airline operations.
Some shady characters, about whom I warned the new owners, from the US became co-owners and it was not too long that GA 2000 filed for bankruptcy. I was reliably informed by investors that except for the shady dealers, everyone lost money in GA 2000.
Incidentally, I, too, lost money from tickets I purchased and was not refunded when GAC and GA 2000 collapsed. I also lost money when Universal and North American stopped their operations. These airlines collapsed mainly because of international factors.
Government undermined GAC over petty conflicts with management.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
Sometimes we tend to blame everything on politics in Guyana. While the politics of the country can sometimes be rotten we must be careful not to look to it as the primary source of all the country’s problems, the collapse of the national airline being a classic case.
Airlines (or airplanes) have high fixed cost so it important to always keep them flying in order to turn a profit. To further reduce the cost associated with operating an airline it is important to have a substantial fleet of similar aircrafts, if not all of one type of plane, so that the administrative, maintenance and other costs are shared. Wild fluctuations in the variable costs (fuel especially) can also be a brute so strong vendor price negotiations and good hedging are important.Here, size and high dollar value purchase can be important leverage to get good price breaks from suppliers.
A careful look at the successful airlines, one sees the average time that each plane spends on the ground is less than 30 minutes between flights and every time these flights take off they are almost full. An airline that can’t do this heads to bankruptcy in a flash and such situations are a common occurrence in the industry. British Airways, Air Jamaica and BWIA (I don’t know what the new name is) are all struggling to achieve these metrics and are teetering on collapse. Because of the importance of the metrics I described above it is no coincidence that ALL single (and few) plane Airlines that ever operated in Guyana have failed.
In short, the business strategy is what was responsible for the collapse of the local airline and it had less to do with politics. If politics hastened the collapse then that was a good thing because it saved monies that would have been spent going down a flawed path or, worse yet, the disaster that could have occurred as management skimped on maintenance cost in an effort to save money.
Let’s put loss of the local airline as a good for Guyana.
apart from GAC being a single plane airline the hefty drugs fine they had to pay everytime the plane was caught with drugs also contributed to its collapse.
The decision to shutdown GAC was the best decision ever made by the PPP. Though I doubt it was a voluntary or conscious one.
The drug problem on GAC is a problem with the government and the PPP’s embrace of the drug trafficking establishment in GY so what is your point Jimmy two tone?
B.S FYI GAC was below water long before the gov’t changed. Drug problem is not new to guyana. GAC was taking out drugs under both gov’t. The only thing new is that you and me are allowed to talk about any problem freely unlike prior to 1992.
Must try to use the other side of ur brain so that you can have two tone and not one no matter what.
Jimmy two tone, drug prablem under the PPP has sky rocketed.
Raja Khan and all the other fellas running around free in GY . Name one big drug dealer the PPP has jailed to date, name one!
Name one that them able to extradite……..
Everything was in trouble before PPP tek over suh what dem do to change anything? Nada Bupkas, we are not buying your PPP sugar cake man, tek that thing and keep it for PPP bingo nite.
shame pun your ppp dem useless budday useless.
Cummins ! GAC went bankrupt when the ruling government took over. It’s demise has little to do with the your so-called analysis and much more with the ‘businessmen’ who wanted to own and control air travel out of Guyana. Of course there is always a captive clientele of Guyanese travellers. Talk to one of those Guyanes jet captains who were suddenly cast aside because of those vultures. Talk to them and be enlightened.
As for Bisram. I wish you would stop your nonsense. Is GA 2000 the same as Guyana Airways Corporation ? And what it is with this Freddie and Freddie …… Familiarity ? Are you now the official letter writer for Ramkarran. He seems to be in hiding. Boom !
Georgie, I’d be happy to see the pre 1992 audited financial reports of GAC that shows that the company turned a profit at anytime. I am asking some people here who are supposed to know Guyana well and they are telling me that apart from some small crafts, GAC was a single Russian jet plane called a Tupelov that Burnham bartered for bauxite with the Russians . ( LADA cars were also part of the deal).I understand that that plane was always breaking down for days at a time stranding many passengers at the airports during the 80’s .It eventually went back to Russia for maintenance and never returned. With that, Hoyte started leasing a 737 during the late 80’s to move the stranded passengers and which served as GAC sometime. An A380 could have also been dry leased at some time too.
……………………Or so the story goes. I’d be happy to be learn the real story from those who know
While the government deserves blame for lots of things happening in Guyana, GAC was a subsidized entity long before 1992.As a ward of the state it appeared profitable many.
I maintain, a single (and few) plane airline is a failure and no law abiding person can develop a business model or a strategy to make that work.
I am done
Brandon,
The cocaine drop at loo-lands did u evey hear about that? Was that under the PPP?
FYI the PPP will win the next election with or without Bharat
WHY? People are living better now than under the PNC. U ever get nara from driving up to timehri? not anymore.
U ever get up at 3 in the morning to go an line up at coop shop for food stuff and when u meet to the door they push a party comrade in front of u? Not any more.
The drug problem is not guyana problem. get ur buddy in the US to stop consume so much and the drug problem will go away.
Econ 101 – if there is no demand supplier will go out of business.
WHY? People are living better now than under the PNC. U ever get nara from driving up to timehri? not anymore.
People living better than under the PPP? people like who? Rohee and the residents of pradoville or the rest of the country?
People not getting nara from going to Timehri they getting Nara running from the PPP and their corrupt police and army everywhere else in GY.
Get a grip Jainarine, I guess the flooding out under PPP is much better than under PHENC. Raja Khan i guess probably was under PNC. PPP should enshrine PNC because if they lose that excuse they are gonna be in deep doo doo.
Mr. Bisram, you extend yourself as the go-to person on this issue. Did you see that?
Here you are, making a complete fool out of yourself (again) by jumping to exonerate Mr Ramkarran who, supposedly, may be a contender for the presidential bid, another PPP charlatan.
I get from your tone, that Mr Ramkarran should not be tainted, for it may have repercussions for his ascendancy. Like Mr Ramkarran, you, too have a lot of questions to answer.
Now I leave you at the mercy of the bloggers.
Mr. Bisram. Stop trying to make a fool of yourself. The buck stops with leadership.If what you said took place, then Ramkarran should stepped down in protest. Great leaders fight for what is right, or resign in protest. Poor leaders hang their mouths where the soup is dropping.
hey bisram ramkarran was the chairman of the board and he knew what was happening at GAC HAVE you ever served on a board? The chairman and members would direct the CEO financial statements will be before the board so ramkarran knew what was taking place
North American did not collapsed as you stated , North made a business decision not to operate the route fron NY to Guyana any more . As for Univrsal any one with a brain know that they were going to collapsed . When you take your racist attitude and make it part of your business plan you are on track to fail its only a matter of time. As for GAC it was handed over to a group of PPP supporters who helped finance the PPP party and that was the Gov way of saying thank you for your support . It was the taxpayres money but in Guyana who cares. By the way North is still flying our troops around the Globe as the all ways do,and doing a darn good job, i should know.
Bisram you and the rest of the PPP establishmen totally miss the ball on columnists. Do you ever read Maureen Dowd’s columns? do you think she is getting personal with the political folks she makes comments on?
The nature of politics is once you step into public life it is fair game because you are in public life. Get this fact and reality into your heads. It is impossible for Freddie to talk to ramkarran and anyone in the political arena without pointing out their failures in public life it just is what it is, get over it. Wake up and welcome to reality.
You fellas want it both ways, you want to bend the rules, ignore the rules, break the laws of the country and get on with all kinds of shenanigans and then when the press and private citizens call you on it oh you are getting personal.
Wasnt the president getting personal with Khemraj ramjattan when they were accusing him falsely of some duty free violations which were untrue? Wasn’t the President getting personal when power was disconnected from both Khemraj Ramjattan’s house and Raff Trotman’s house after the advert was placed in the T&T newspapers for the Americas sumit?
Note to Bisram and the PPP, the people of this country are starting to fight back they are finding their voices, deal with it. We are not going to accept your nonsense anymore.
Mr. Bisram please do not portray your self as a joker and insult the intelligence of the readers. You claimed that you are educated and you lost money on airline tickets. Now we all know that if you purchased tickets on a credit card your airfare is refunded, unless you paid cash then you are out of luck. Then if you paid cash you are neither smart or educated. Help me out here. Please explain how you lost on your airfare please.
maybe not everybody living off a credit card. some people have cash
As the saying goes a fool and his money are soon parted.
Paying with credit card gives you protection. Paying with cash does not.Most of all would you not like to protect something you paid for in case the company goes bankrupt. That shows how smart you are Mr Jainarnine.Keep up that sort of thinking.
Since when you have to be living off credit cards because you use them?
Why can’t you pay off the balance at the end of the month? there are a lot of reasons as Kunta has pointed out why using a CC is better than paying cash because the CC company can protect you from losing your funds.
Come on jainarine, you tekkin lil too much liberty wid your keyboard there.
jainarine. It is the prudent thing to do by paying for airline tickets with credit cards, regardless of how much cash one has. KK gave you the reason why. We live and we learn. Hopefully.
Mr Bisram, Writing about travels or going to different parts of the world does not make one an expert on airlines issues. By those criteria many of us can pontificate on running an airline. My close friend Denis Malone of Ireland worked at GAC for several years and through him I knew what obtained at GAC. Poor management of a one plane airline took its toll. Mr Malone and other airline representatives had a meeting with the govt (PNC) on the restructuring GAC, Burnham told them he wanted 51% without putting any input. Later on several Guyanese tried their hands. Let me be frank, Guyanese know nothing about running an airline, they know about rum shops, cookshops and such. An airline is beyond their ability.
Bisram is a top notch expert and typical PPP hack, he knows it all yet he was not knowledgeable enough to create a website and respond to all the criticisms being leveled at him by Freddie Kissoon and others about the lack of transparency in his so called polling operation.
Now he is joining with the PPP hacks to try and poke Kissoon in the eye because Kissoon did a phenomenal job in exposing him and his fake poll to the people.
Way to go Fredddie, the wanna be travel channel journalist now has to go on the attack to save whatever face he may have left.