IN recent weeks we have seen the folding up of EZjet airlines due to (alleged)  financial impropriety of its boss Sonny Ramdeo in the U.S., which is another chapter in the long and troubled relationship of Guyanese and international airlines.
The saga of airlines and Guyanese goes way back, and I recall the days

of the Guyana Airways Corporation(GAC). During the PNC years of GAC,we saw an airline that served the Guyanese public reasonably well until that folded. I say ‘reasonably well’ because we were not privy to all the information as to its management and day-to-day functioning only to speak on what was open to the public. But, we say it served us well.
When the PPP/C government came there was clamour for a national carrier and again the thought of providing an airline/s to take care of the lucrative travelling Guyanese diaspora. Not willing to be sucked into the cycle of a failed airline industry, the government did not go it alone but entered into a partnership with big businesses. That arrangement lasted for a brief period and then came the inevitable, as it too failed.
That New Guyana Airways Corporation failed because of the crippling drugs trade. The government’s security system was ill equipped to deal with the trade  that was way ahead of them in new and innovative ways in transporting drugs, which meant that the airline was doomed to fail.  Whenever the airline was fined for drugs, the shareholders  looked to the government to bail them out. Therefore, Mrs Jagan, then President of Guyana, thought it best to have the airline liquidated and there ended the chapter of the New Guyana Airways.
The termination of a national carrier, however, did not in any way kill the idea of our country being serviced by one.
The mere fact that thousands of Guyanese travel overseas on an almost daily basis always fancied the interest of investors. So, Sonny Ramdeo came on board to fill that void. But sadly his love affair with a successful airline and shady business practices saw the demise of EZjet.
Now, the problem with these ventures is not that the industry is a failure; far from it.  The airline industry is very lucrative, especially when you consider the pattern of Guyanese commuter traffic internationally. But the problem is these pitfalls that plague it and they come in various forms. This problem is not going to be solved any way soon, so in the meantime government needs to place a fixed amount on any airline wanting to do business here. Have the airline lodge a cash amount that, in the event of its collapse, there is money to pay another airline to ferry passengers out.