THE $40M that the operators of Redjet were required to lodge as a bond before it began flying in and out of Guyana will not be enough to cover the local expenses left behind after the airline halted operations throughout the Caribbean in March this year. This is according to the Principal Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works, Mr. Derrick Jodhan.
In an invited comment, from his Kingston, Georgetown Office yesterday, he said, in addition to the money which has to be paid to passengers who would have purchased tickets and must be refunded, there is also a bill for about $24M at Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) while the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is owed around $8M by the airline.
Additionally, the sum total of the refund to passengers locally is somewhere in the vicinity of $35M, which puts REDjet’s indebtedness in Guyana at $67M.
Asked about prioritising the payments, Jodhan said a decision has already been taken to have the passengers repaid first, after which any other aspect of payment will be looked at.
He reminded that the Public Works Ministry, which is dealing with the refunds, will only be honouring claims for tickets which were bought in Guyana.

WAITING
Jodhan explained that one of the reasons the processing did not start as soon as REDjet exited the market was because the government was waiting to see if the airline would have resumed flights.
He added that, after it was realised that the carrier will, definitely, be unable to restart its service to the Caribbean and, moreso Guyana, the authorities began taking steps to have local passengers paid back.
Jodhan said, after the airline ceased flying, persons were able to make enquiries at its local office on Avenue of the Republic, in Georgetown but that office was closed and people then resorted to making contact via the Internet where Redjet invited persons to fill up claim forms.
However, it was not long after that persons found they were unable to reach the airline.
Jodhan said it was then the Ministry decided to advertise for claims from persons who would have purchased their tickets locally. He said that process went on for a month before being stopped but claimants continued to file and those requests were accepted and sent off to REDjet by way of e-mail.
He said almost 900 applications for ticket refunds were received although it did not necessarily represent the number of persons seeking refunds, as some forms contained more than one names, as much as five and six persons, which represented families.
Jodhan said, so far, Guyana has dispatched a list of almost 2,000 names claiming refunds for tickets purchased.
He said the Public Works Ministry hopes that the airline speeds up the process so that passengers can get paid by the end of August.

VERIFYING
But, if REDjet does not get its act together, then the government will start the procedure of verifying the information on the applications to effect payments and that will mean the applicants would have to wait longer, as the Ministry would then have to establish that each ticket for which the passenger is claiming was bought in Guyana.
That has to be done before government will tap into the $40M security bond and effect the payment of refunds to passengers, which would vary in amount, depending on the countries of passengers’ destination.
After the passengers are paid, then the Ministry would look to settle with affected agencies such as the CJIA and GCAA.
If the security bond would have been exhausted, the Ministry will be looking to see what assets, if any, belonging to REDjet are in Guyana and can be disposed of to recover costs.
At the moment, it is not clear if there will be any review of how much must be deposited, as security bond, for new airlines entering the Guyana market, Jodhan said.