Local aircraft owners are still contending with the unavailability of functioning navigation aids in the interior to assist the Air Traffic Control tower and pilots, a situation they find unacceptable.
First Vice President of the Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana (AOAG) Lt Colonel (Ret) Anthony Mekdeci made the observation in a presentation at the graduation ceremony for students from the Art Williams and Harry Wendt Aeronautical Engineering School at Ogle on Friday.
“Our current situation with regards to Air Traffic Control and Navigation Aids in a country virtually dependant on its air services for hinterland development, is unacceptable,” he told the gathering.
Against this background he said pilots were doing a good job providing even scheduled passenger services to an increasing number of destinations in the interior.
He pointed out too that that the domestic environment in which AOAG airlines operates is far from ideal. He said some 200 airstrips were identified sometime ago of which 70 are active while the others have been abandoned or are in disuse.
He said those still operable are in a far from satisfactory condition even though government has done its best to maintain them within the constraints of interior transportation logistics for equipment and material and a limited budget.
Further, he told the gathering that the poor condition of the airstrips contributes significantly to the higher cost and maintenance and replacement of aircraft and presents a daily challenge to flight safety.
Touching on the issue of security, Mekdeci stated that, “security at these airstrips is for the most part non-existent.” And to this end he alluded to the confirmed hijackings of two aircraft over the last 10 years.
He lauded the work of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) in its recent destruction of illegal airstrips and stressed that few people realize the dangers of flying when there are unreported aircraft in the area which haven’t declared their positions.
But even though he lauded the GDF’s work, he reiterated the call for government to properly utilize the military’s resources in areas of security, border protection and search and rescue operations where they are really needed.
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