AIR Services Limited (ASL) will be affording persons ease of access to eight villages in Region 7. Persons travelling into the hinterland would now have access to, Kamarang, Imbaimadai, Chi Chi East and west, Phillipai, Paruima, Kaikan and Ekereku Bottom. These flights will be available every Tuesday and Thursday, beginning November 12. This announcement was made today at the ASL Office at Ogle Airport International.

Minster of state, Dawn Hastings-Williams, who spoke at the launch said that the government has been moving in the direction of ensuring easy access to hinterland communities in an effort to sustain development and ensure that persons in the country would have the opportunity to travel and have the experience of taking in the beauty of the hinterland regions.

“Your government under the leadership of his excellency, President Granger, always talk about bridging the gap, between the hinterland and the coastland and when he speaks about that he not only speaks about roads, and bridges but he talks holistically bridging the gap even in terms of ITC hubs. You could have an aircraft that tourist go in and if he or she has Wi-Fi available you could take a picture at the top of mount Roraima, and send it to someone in another part of the world and so it is a form of selling your product, that’s a part of tourism right there and that’s what we’re moving towards, developing the hinterland, while using tourism to do so,” said Hastings-Williams.

Also speaking at the launch, Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Jaipaul Sharma said, “Guyana is known as the Eldorado, and you know we have yellow gold, we have black gold now, and I believe tourism and aviation is a gold by itself. It will compete with gold, oil and gas. Persons coming in to Guyana would no longer just have to settle for Georgetown or Kaiteur, but they will have the opportunity to visit all of these other destinations.”

Minister Sharma further stated that the he was pleased that ASL was moving to expand seeing that aviation in the next seven years will see a massive growth. The 17000 aircrafts worldwide would be increased by an estimated 25000, which he said would indicate that there is opportunity for employment in aviation.

ASL related that the main idea behind adding these communities in Region 7 to their areas of air transport coverage was to cater for their customers on a larger scale. The company moved in this direction to ensure that their customers could get to and from their destinations easily, without having to take multiple modes of transportation.
This achievement is not just one for the company, but one that is beneficial to Guyanese and to the economy. Not only would it enable persons to travel to these parts of the country with ease, but it will also benefit the business persons in these communities in relation to getting their products in and out of these communities.