A POLICY proposal and action plan for the domestic industry identifies aviation safety and security as its number one priority.

Crafted by local airline owners, operatives and other stakeholders, it was formally accepted by the Competitiveness Strategy Steering Committee chaired by Minister Irfaan Ali and, subsequently, approved last week by the National Competitiveness Council, headed by President Donald Ramotar.
Implementation is to be over the next two to three years and, at the end, will see the Ogle International Airport and the operations of local airlines at Ogle in full compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Standards and recommended practices.
The disclosures were made by Mr. Michael Correia (Jnr), President of the Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana (AOAG) during a media briefing on the initiative being undertaken by the grouping to take the development, regulation and safety of the sector to a higher level.
The engagement was held at the Guyana International Conference Centre and Correia was flanked by domestic airline owners and operators and several senior officials within the sector.
He said: “Given the fact that the density of air traffic within Guyana has increased ten-fold in recent years and flights operating each day into the hinterland, generally, encounter challenging weather and geographical conditions and poorly maintained airstrips, the aviation industry in Guyana has good reason to be satisfied with its safety record.
“But the industry’s emphasis will be on making it better. One accident is one accident too many,” Correia declared.

THE GROUP
He said the group which drafted the proposals comprised of Mr. Hugh Denbow, Chairman of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and its staffers, Mr. Saheed Sulaman, Ms. Artie Heeralall and Mr. Abraham Dorees; staff of Air Services Limited (ASL); Ms. Annette Arjoon-Martins and Mr. Bryan Latchman, Chief Executive Officers of the Ogle International Airport and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA); Mr. Anthony Mekdeci and Mr. Ramesh Ghir, respectively, member of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Mr. Daniel Fraser; representative of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), Mr. Mortimer Livan and other industry representatives, among them Captain Gerry Gouveia of Roraima Airways.
Correia said, under his chairmanship, the Aviation Sub-Group, at the National Economic Forum, had started work since July last year without any doubts there was considerable room for regulatory improvement and enforcement within the sector.
He said among the industry’s recommendations for immediate attention were independent aircraft accident investigation and prompt public reporting of the findings of these and actions taken by the GCAA to avoid a recurrence.
This was aimed at ensuring transparency within the industry.
The recommendations also included immediate action on the establishment of a national search and rescue system, with appropriate protocols under the Civil Defence Commission (CDC); implementation of industry recommended works for hinterland airstrips development to accommodate larger aircraft and with sufficient funding to support an efficient maintenance and rehabilitation programme and funding to achieve and maintain ICAO standards and requirements.

CRITICAL ROLE
Correia also said: “Pivotal to the industry moving forward is the critical role of the GCAA. In the medium term, we urge the strengthening of its administrative and technical capabilities, so that it can efficiently deliver on its responsibilities. In the immediate term the flight operations oversight function must be strengthened and enforced.”
He said the sub-group has been positively enthused to see that the GCAA had embarked on a number of positive initiatives which concur with its recommendations.
Among these, he confirmed, is that the GCAA had agreed to hold regular meetings with industry stakeholders, in order to generate greater collaboration across the board on addressing the needs of aviation.
Training of air traffic controllers had been enhanced with international input from which many had benefited.
The GCAA has also agreed that, in the interest of transparency, to post reports of aviation accidents on its website.
There had been a commitment, by government for funding to take the operations to ICAO level and $80M had already been allocated for the introduction of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast Programme.
GCAA has committed, as well, to networking with industry personnel and the Ministry of Agriculture to discuss collaboration with the Hydromet Service operators in hinterland locations to pass on pertinent and critical weather information to aircraft operators.

POSITIVELY CONVINCED
Correia said he is positively convinced that the only way to build Guyana was through the Government, the Private Sector and Civil Society working to meet and overcome the challenges together.
He said he is confident that the Guyanese domestic aviation industry is on solid ground.
“The wheels are beginning to turn in the right direction,” he asserted, while emphasising that the major scheduled airlines flying out of Ogle maintain extremely high maintenance standards which measure up to any international comparison for the class of aircraft they operate.
Correia said, too, that pilots flying aircraft in Guyana are trained to the very highest international standards and are required to, consistently, upgrade and update those.
According to him, the combination of international standards of pilot training and aircraft maintenance procedures has resulted in statistically good safety records in the industry over the last 20 years, in spite of the recent accidents.
His comments were endorsed by several of the airline representatives who were part of the briefing.
Gouveia agreed that there had not been any falling off of passengers in the sector due to recent accidents.
“People remain confident about our ability to get them to their destinations safely,” he reported.

(By Clifford Stanley)