-will further affect ties with international aviation industry
The security challenges facing the authorities at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri are well beyond their capacity to effectively address in the short-term and the most effective immediate response would be to temporarily deploy ranks from the Guyana Defence Force to secure the airport after dark.
“I believe that what is at stake in terms of our standing in the international aviation community, the country’s economy and the implications of airport security for international travel demands that such a step be taken immediately. We cannot wait for a major security breach with possible international implications,” Private Sector Commission Chairman Captain Gerry Gouveia told Stabroek Business earlier this week.
The call by the PSC Chairman for a stepping up of airport security comes in the wake of a renewed spate of thefts at the country’s only international airport. Over the past two weeks there have been two separate incidents of theft of runway lights from Timehri and Captain Gouveia told Stabroek Business that his recommendation was being made in the light of the admission by officials of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Authority that they were not equipped to deal with the situation.
Meanwhile a public sector civil aviation source has backed Gouveia’s call for an immediate upgrading of airport security. The source said that the inability of the airport authorities to provide effective security at the airport bodes ill for the country’s travel sector. “In effect the security situation makes a bad situation worse,” the source said.
“Part of the problem with the uncontrolled spate of thefts and security breaches at the airport is that it does no good for the confidence of an international airline industry that already does not consider Guyana to be part of a financially viable route,” the official told Stabroek Business.
The lights reportedly disappeared while staff at the airport were on duty.
The aviation source said that it was no secret that the disappearance of the lights was “not a case of two isolated incidents.” He said that the pattern of thefts, particularly in recent months, had demonstrated “that neither the Cheddi Jagan Airport Authority or the Ministry responsible for Communi-cation is capable of providing effective security at the airport. Whatever has to happen to improve security at the airport has to happen now”.
This newspaper has reported on thefts at the airport earlier this year including the disappearance of millions of dollars in equipment from a hangar run by Roraima Airways and the reported removal of items from a helicopter belonging to another private aviation company. When Stabroek Business raised this matter with senior CJIA officials this newspaper was told that the existing detail of supernumerary constables assigned to provide security for the airport was insufficient to cover the entire premises. Additionally,
Stabroek Business had been informed that the airport authorities had, over time, been unsuccessful in securing the removal of squatters from lands contiguous to the CJIA perimeter fence. At the time officials told Stabroek News that in the wake of most of the thefts sections of the perimeter fence had been found to be cut and vehicles had been used to remove some of the equipment.
But the civil aviation source said that the Airport Authority’s story “was a reflection of its own inefficiency.” since, given the sensitivity of international airports the world over “there is no question of the Airport Authority simply saying that it cannot protect its own perimeter fences. Surely, the Minister of Communications should be answerable for such appalling breaches of security at the airport.”
Meanwhile, Gouveia, who is also Chief Executive Officer of Roraima Airways has told Stabroek Business that given the sensitivity of the international aviation industry to security issues it was not in Guyana’s interest to allow the impression to be created that the authorities were incapable of protecting the airport. “The worst thing in the world that could happen for Guyana at this time as far as its relationship with the international aviation industry is concerned is to have the impression created, through these thefts, that we may be vulnerable to security breaches. That could represent a further setback for the country’s travel sector,” Gouveia said.
Asked if he was satisfied with official responses to security-related difficulties at the airport, the aviation official told Stabroek Business that that was far from the case. He noted that apart from the targeting of the airport by thieves there was also the recent incident in which a reportedly drunken passenger exited a Delta aircraft through the emergency chute.
“After some routine noises by the Minister during which he appeared to feel, somehow… that Delta was responsible for the incident we have heard nothing more. It’s amazing how an incident as serious as that has just been allowed to disappear,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Gouveia told Stabroek Business that a case has long existed for the strengthening of security at Timehri. “It is not really satisfactory to say that you do not have adequate security for your own international airport,” he added.
