HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon has stated that criticism of EZjet should not be laid at the feet of government, because the administration has been responsive to Guyanese and their expectations of reasonable fares and access to the airways.

He made these statements yesterday during his weekly post-cabinet media briefing at the Office of the President on Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.
Luncheon noted that cabinet has reviewed the rapid developments surrounding the sudden demise of the low-cost air carrier.
“Cabinet is deeply dismayed at this outcome, the outcome of an initiative that had such welcome outputs and held such a promising future,” he stated.
He pointed out that for Guyanese; the wave of low cost airfares to foreign destinations was directly attributed to the entry of EZjet into the sector. However, a series of unexpected disruptions occurred.
Nevertheless, the Cabinet Secretary pointed out that EZjet was licensed to operate in many territories other than Guyana.
“…the demise was a collective failure of regulators, the industry has responded to government’s immediate overtures and governments expressions of concern,” he said.
He added that Caribbean Airlines, in particular, has assumed a significant role in offering relief to affected EZjet passengers.
According to Luncheon, putting price controls, monitoring additional flights and timely interventions are all undertakings being introduced into the sector by Caribbean Airlines.
In addition, he stressed that the administration recognizes the likely impact of the untimely suspension of EZjet’s services, especially at this particular time, the holiday season. Nonetheless, he emphasized that it pledges to do its best to ensure that plans made previously by visitors do not fail.
The HPS further noted that the support of the administration in furthering the ambitions of the investors in EZjet should be recognised.
“This is not to disparage similar efforts made in other jurisdictions; but definitely it was to the most appealing body jurisdiction because we are the ones, Guyanese, who have been assailed by this unequal treatment with high prices, comparably speaking, and poor to unacceptable level of services,” he asserted.
He emphasized that EZjet was here because of the current administration, and that in the industry, the competition was fierce, noting that this is a feature not only of aviation but also many other sectors.
According to Luncheon, the administration’s main concern was access to the airways at affordable prices.
“We wanted more airlines flying to Guyana, offering fares that were competitive and definitely were less than the pre-EZjet entry, and that was what was achieved,” he said.
EZjet’s operations in Guyana were suspended by the government, through its Civil Aviation Authority, with immediate effect on November 8.
This action came after the airline’s operations in the United States had also suffered a similar fate, in light of its failure to fulfill its financial obligations to the aircraft service provider company ‘Swift Air.’
Additionally, the suspension had come just a few weeks after founder of the airline, Sonny Ramdeo, was sued by a hospital chain in the U.S. for, allegedly, embezzling more than US$5M.