– due to return by Thursday

The 14 TravelSpan flight attendant trainees who left Guyana on June 4 for formal training at Vision Airline’s Office in Nevada, Las Vegas to be conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are reported to be “doing extremely well.” 

Speaking at a press conference at the Executive Lounge at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Vanita Jagnarain, General Manager of TravelSpan Guyana had explained that the company started advertising the existing vacancies for flight attendants in January 2014, and the company had received hundreds of applications. Thirty applicants were shortlisted and all are to be trained by the FAA.
Fourteen Guyanese left here on June 4 for the training that will last three weeks. In view of the class size, all prospective flight attendants were not accommodated in the first batch. The remaining sixteen are scheduled to leave at the end of June to be trained.
Jagnarain, in an invited comment, stated that after almost two weeks of training “the flight attendants are doing extremely well. The candidates are more than half way through their training exercise which comes to an end this week. We are told that officials at the training facility are very impressed with the trainees and their capabilities.”
She also related that on June 15 “the staff of Vision Airlines Training Center in Las Vegas, Nevada was very impressed by the hard work and dedication of the Guyanese students and as a reward the flight attendants travelled on a Vision Airlines 737 aircraft this past Sunday to visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona.”
“We are impressed with the progress of our Guyanese flight attendants and we are very pleased that they had a relaxing day visiting one of the wonders of the world,” related Rob Binns, Director of TravelSpan.
“We expect to have the individuals back in Guyana by Thursday, June 26. For quite a few of them, that will be their first flight as a certified flight attendant, they will actually be working on the return flight to Guyana. We anticipate having all 14 of them work the flights by month-end,” Vanita Jagnarain said.
In closing, she reiterated that “we are thrilled to be in a position to offer such an amazing opportunity to these young and talented individuals. TravelSpan remains committed to Guyana and to the Guyanese people. We know this move will better help to service our customers.”
TravelSpan Incorporated was set to begin direct flights between New York and Guyana starting December 14, 2013 after being cleared by the US Department of Transport. The airline was established in April 2006 and began operations in Guyana shortly after being granted licences to provide regional and international services.
TravelSpan Guyana is a sister company of the existing TravelSpan Inc. which operates charter services between Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and North America.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the national aviation authority of the United States. And as an agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of American civil aviation. The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 created the organisation under the name Federal Aviation Agency. The agency adopted its current name in 1966 when it became a part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

(By Rebecca Ganesh-Ally)