Ogle Airport Management would welcome Government oversight panel
THE Management of Ogle International Airport (OIA) has announced that it would, heartily, welcome an oversight role by government in its operations as this would strengthen transparency and eliminate misinformed perceptions. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the privately-owned OIA, Mr. Anthony Mekdeci said such a mechanism is part of the lease arrangement signed with government in 2001, as an Airport Review Panel (ARP), but has not been operational.
“The government has a mechanism in the lease agreement that can take care of any problem anyone may feel exists at OIA. Now that we have done a lot of construction and development and getting a better environment, we feel that this panel should be put in place and get going,” he offered.
According to him, “Management of OIA would love to have the oversight panel. It would be a good idea to activate it, because people will not feel that it is just a group of guys on the board managing the airport. If there is a review panel, that is open and transparent, with Government officials on it, then everybody would be very comfortable.”
Mekdeci said that development would take a lot of pressure off the members of the current Board and enable them to concentrate on upgrading the terminal and managing it in keeping with the mandate given by Government.
He made the comments during a media tour of the facility last week that included a visit to OIA’s aviation fuel installation, where safety procedures for the receipt were displayed to show that all the necessary systems are in place to ensure that nothing contaminated gets into any aircraft.
Mekdeci disclosed that work for developing Ogle into a regional international class airport, by mid-next year, is on schedule.
He mentioned, too, that the aviation fuel distributor RUBIS, had, last week, reduced the price of the commodity to operators at Ogle, defusing a controversy that had been ongoing for weeks recently.
Must include
With respect to the ARP, Article 16 of the Lease Agreement between the Government and the OIA, states, in part, that the members must include the Director General of Civil Aviation, an Airport Liaison Officer as a Government representative, the Airport Manager, representatives of an international aviation regulatory body and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and an environmental consultant, among others.
The arrangement is for the ARP to meet not less than once each calendar quarter during the first two years and once every six months thereafter, with the focus on reviewing the progress of both Government and OIA on their obligations to the airport.
The body has not had any meetings to date and the OIA management is now urging that it be speedily put in place for the obvious benefits of transparency and even greater efficiency in the operations.
Mekdeci revealed that the OIA Management will spend a total of about $1.3 billion in a two-phase development, to regional standards, by the time it is completed.
The  completion of the  first phase, involving the construction of a 4,200 feet long 100 feet wide airstrip, at a cost of about $1billion, is anticipated to finish by the end of October.
Then an additional sum of between $300M and $400M would be expended on works such as aprons and taxiways, a terminal to accommodate Government agencies, including Port Health and Plant and Animal Quarantines, expanded ticket counter and departure area.
Other work to be done, by mid-next year include a  perimeter fence,  new security systems, runway lights,  precision approach path indicators (PAPI ) for guiding aircraft visually, drainage, wind socks and signage to give directions to the anticipated incoming and outgoing regional carriers.

Mekdeci expressed gratitude to Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Clement Rohee, who, he credited with authorising actions to take the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) at OIA up to the required standard.
The CEO was also grateful to the Government and President Bharrat Jagdeo, who he said was instrumental in helping OIA to get money for the runway extension through a European Union (EU) funded programme.
”We, at OIA, see it as a very important second airport to Guyana; as an airport that is going to be extremely useful to people who are travelling regionally, like to Trinidad or Barbados. They can enjoy the ease of travel from Ogle. Once you get these regional carriers coming here, it will be a great thing for Guyana,” Mekdeci remarked.
Meanwhile, aircraft owners operating at Ogle expressed relief at the decision, by RUBIS last week, to drop the price of aviation fuel sold them.
They said the prices are now on par with that sold at Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) and will result in a “significant” reduction in their operational costs.
Operations Officer of Air Services Limited, Mrs. Annette Arjoon-Martins, contacted yesterday, was happy with the RUBIS reduction.
ASL has been leading a campaign for it, with the argument that the prices charged by RUBIS were grossly unfair to the operators.
“We at ASL are happy about this development and I will, personally, continue to be in the forefront of efforts to ensure that aviation costs are kept to a minimum for the benefit of the travelling public,” she said.