In recent years we have had our share of several airlines coming and going and now the jury is out on embattled airline EZjet which said it is broke and will not be able to refund passengers on Friday, as promised by the local airline’s office by way of post-dated cheques issued to passengers two weeks ago. Local operations manager Rosalinda Rasul informed the media that the airline had no other option than to hand the refunding process over to the Government of Guyana which will begin the process by first publishing notices inviting persons to submit their claims for refunds. That process however, is a lengthy one and passengers are not likely to get any money from that US$200,000 bond anytime before 2013.

Rasul told reporters that even in the face of hardships being experienced by the airline, while she and local staff tried desperately to keep the operations of the airline afloat, its founder and former CEO Sonny Ramdeo kept “lying, betraying and misleading” the entire staff of the EZjet airline both locally and overseas.
The woman said that it was only Ramdeo who knew the true and real financial position of the company, but that remained a well-kept secret only to him.
Meanwhile, Ramdeo is on a serious fraud charge in the U.S. and if found guilty could see him behind bars for a very lengthy period.
In the meantime, passengers will suffer as they have to wait for the government to process the refunding process which would be frustrating on their part.
It would be hoped that we would have learnt our lesson well from this current fiasco as regards these fly-by- night airlines and therefore in future we will ensure that there is more intense scrutiny and screening of any company or entity which seeks to establish an airline business here.
The absence of a reliable and efficient airline service will always impact negatively on the volume of tourists to our country as many would be disinclined to travel under such conditions.
In fact, lots of people in the large Guyanese North American diaspora would very much like to visit their homeland, but are not inclined to do so because of the absence of affordable and reliable direct flights between North America and Guyana for a long time. This situation has been remedied to some extent with Caribbean Airlines now offering direct flights and being awarded Flag Carrier status.
However, with our intensifying drive to push tourism and make Guyana a major tourist destination, we have to look into the future to ensure that as our tourism industry grows there is a corresponding increase in the availability of direct flights which are both affordable and reliable.
And therefore there should be a comprehensive approach to the whole issue of international flights to and from Guyana, with a view to come up with a lasting solution.
The correlation between reliable flights and tourism cannot be over emphasised.
However, the importance of reliable airline services is not restricted to tourism, because in today’s world they are crucial to transaction of business and the movement of goods and services which brings immense benefits to national economies.