Cabinet has given approval for new airline, Fly Jamaica to commence flights from here to New York and Toronto but this is contingent on the company meeting all of the financial and technical requirements, including a $40 million bond.
This is according to Secretary to the Cabinet Dr Roger Luncheon in a post-Cabinet press briefing held at the Office of the President yesterday.
A press release from the Government Information Agency (GINA) said that Luncheon reported that approval came after the standard evaluation procedures were carried out by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and the recommendation made to Cabinet by Minister of Works Robeson Benn.
According to GINA, Luncheon said that the approval would have come earlier but the submission made to Cabinet was too late to be incorporated into the agenda for the statutory meeting on the matter.
“It is hoped that flight operations would begin as early as possible after all the formalities would have been completed. The GINA release said that Luncheon said the airline should have already completed those requirements and deposited the requisite bond of $40 million before the recommendation could have been made to the Cabinet by Minister Benn.
The quantum of this bond was recently questioned when passengers who flew with the now defunct EZjet could not be fully repaid as the total owed to customers exceeded the bond.
Fly Jamaica was started by two aviation entrepreneurs – Guyanese Captain Ronald Reece of Wings Aviation, and Jamaican Captain Lloyd Tai. The airline is based in Jamaica.
Speaking to this newspaper, Paula McAdam of the GCAA said that the next step following Cabinet’s approval is that the airline will have to submit key technical documentation prior to commencing operations.
“Mr. Ronald Reece was in the system for a long time so he knows what the requirements are. They will have to now submit a few documents for us to issue him with foreign [operation specifications]. This will then allow a foreign registered aircraft to operate in Guyana. It is not a long and drawn out process and it is issued based on operation specifications and approval that the airline would have gotten from Jamaica and the (US) FAA,” she said.
She said that while the Cabinet approval gives administrative approval for the operations to commence, there still needs to be technical approval. The airline commenced its service to New York from Kingston, Jamaica in February this year.
A senior officer of Wings Aviation told Stabroek News yesterday that while the company is welcoming of Cabinet’s decision, it is for the office of the airline in Jamaica to comment as to when exactly the airline is seeking to commence operations out of Georgetown. The person said that similar statements were made by officials of the Government some weeks ago but this turned out to be not accurate. Efforts to reach Captain Tai and Captain Reece proved futile.
The airline is perceived as badly needed since the pull-out of Delta Airlines left passengers to North America at the mercy of the lone operator Caribbean Airlines.
Months ago, Guyanese experienced the end of EZ Jet whose operations came to a halt following reports about improprieties of the airline’s owner and his subsequent arrest for fraud.
Kit Nascimento, speaking on behalf of the Aircraft Owners Association and the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), said that it is welcome news that the Government has decided to approve the airline. “The Aircraft Owners’ Association are pleased that the Government has finally agreed to authorise Fly Jamaica. The Association played an important part in speaking with the Government on this,” he said. “We had a number of very productive meetings with Minister of Works Robeson Benn and [acting] Minister of Tourism Irfaan Ali,” he said.
“I know too that the Private Sector Commission and THAG were very supportive of expanding airlift in and out of Guyana especially with Delta [leaving],” he said. “It is not healthy to be solely dependent on one airline,” he said.
According to Nascimento, airlift into New York and Toronto is important since a significant portion of the diaspora resides there. “We need many more airlines flying to those destinations than we currently have. While Caribbean Airlines and Fly Jamaica will provide flights, we still need brand name airlines like Delta, American Airlines and Jet Blue flying into other destinations in North America and Europe.
“We hope that the new airport will encourage branded airlines to come to Guyana since these airlines provide a service that the smaller ones do not.
They can also bring down the cost, which right now is prohibitive and could severely hamper tourism,” Nascimento said. “Prices must come down and the only way for this to happen is through competition,” he said.
