A team of officials from American carrier, JetBlue, is expected to visit Guyana next month.

This is according to Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, who told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the team is expected to undertake a scoping mission.

“They will be mounting a mission next month,the first or second week of next month. They will start looking at things like facilities, hotels, staffing,” Patterson told DPI.

He said that the expected launch of the carrier’s operations here has been pushed back from November this year.”From my understanding, they received the aircraft late, so it is pushed back a bit. They were supposed to start in November and they are still pushing [towards the launch of operations in Guyana],”Minister Patterson explained.

He also spoke about connectivity with Europe and plans by UK-based carrier Virgin Atlantic to operate here in 2020.

“The High Commissioner in the UK contacted us saying that Virgin Atlantic was looking at Guyana and they are doing their 2020 routes-hubs programme, and they say they want Guyana to be a part of it,” Patterson said.

Minister Patterson stated that he will work alongside the Minister of Finance,Winston Jordan to examine the feasibility of Virgin Atlantic’s expansion of service to Guyana.

“That hasn’t been resolved as yet, but there is an ongoing discussion.I have made phone calls directly to the [Guyana] High Commissioner to the UK and empowered him to talk directly to Virgin about bringing their services here,” Patterson said.

Minister Patterson expressed confidence that with ‘first oil’ in 2020, many more airlines are expected to come on stream.

Last Friday at a forum where the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority(GCAA) turned the sod for its new headquarters at Providence, East Bank Demerara, Patterson said “the need for a robust and an increased GCAA is indisputable.”

Several months ago,this newspaper reported that JetBlue announced plans with its staff to add Guyana to its international destinations.

Since the discovery of oil here,several international carriers have expressed an interest in Guyana as a travel destination. Thus far American oil giant Exxon Mobil has made 13 oil discoveries while UK-based Tullow oil recently made its first oil discovery.