THE people of the Upper Mazaruni are facing a serious problem as regards the high cost of air transportation from Ogle to Kamarang and back. From last Wednesday, the cost of air charters using the Cessna Grand Caravan has increased by 20 per cent. In dollar terms, this means an increase from $125 a pound to $150 a pound for every single pound of cargo.
Added to this, is the problem  of not enough scheduled flights on a weekly basis. There are two major airlines which offer these limited services. Since they cannot provide enough seats and cargo space to cover all the demand, the ordinary consumer has to patronise the private contractors who are sub-contractors to the airline.  This increases the cost further.
The difficulties faced are as follows:
(1) Small businessmen cannot post goods on the airline directly
(2) Passengers are forced to deal with private contractors since the airlines (both of them) can only satisfy a limited demand.
(3) There is discrimination in favour of those persons or businesses which can afford to charter the entire aircraft (2,800 to 3,000 pounds payload).
(4) Smaller customers with smaller amounts of cargo (100 pounds or less than 1,000 pounds) cannot have easy access to the airlines but only through the sub-contractors.
(5) It is looking very unlikely that voters from the upper Mazaruni who are registered here in the Upper Mazaruni can return to vote as they had planned and budgeted for
(6) Voters who live some distance from the places of poll may not be able to travel because of the new prices of fuel which should be in effect shortly.
We are asking that the powers that be address these problems since it also affects the school population.
There are hundreds of students from this area who are in school, on scholarship or otherwise on the coastland. If they cannot get a seat on the airlines directly, they will be forced to spend a lovely Christmas and Easter in Georgetown since their parents have to pay for their passages.