–– after Dynamic Airways cancels flights

DYNAMIC Airways was on Sunday reportedly working “round the clock” to get to their respective destinations nearly 600 passengers stranded both here and in New York.Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Roraima Airways, Captain Gerald Gouveia, whose company is responsible for handling local ground and ticketing services for Dynamic Airways, has told the Guyana Chronicle: “Dynamic is working very hard to solve the problem. I am extremely concerned and sensitive about the feelings and emotions of the Dynamic passengers that are delayed (at) both JFK and GEO at this time.”

Gouveia said Dynamic’s woes started on Friday, when two of its planes began experiencing problems at the John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York and close to 300 passengers who were scheduled to fly to Guyana were left stranded at JFK, while almost another 300 who were scheduled to travel to New York on Friday and Saturday were left stranded here in Guyana.

Gouveia explained that the company has two Boeing 767 aircraft on the ground at JFK, one of which is ‘back up’ to the main operating aircraft. Flight control issues arose when one of the planes began to experience maintenance problems, while a handling services truck at JFK crashed into the other, resulting in the plane being damaged.

“A ground handling truck at JFK accidentally hit the left engine casing of the aircraft,” Gouveia said, adding: “The engineers are working around the clock to return that aircraft to serviceability.”

He said that as Dynamic was attempting to respond to the situation by activating the services of the back-up aircraft, misfortune again struck. “The back-up aircraft was activated and did two flights. On the return flight to JFK, the aircraft developed a maintenance issue, which is currently being rectified by the maintenance teams working around the clock to fix it,” Gouveia explained.

Gouveia said he was “really sorry” that such unfortunate events occurred, especially in this season when thousands of people move between Guyana and New York. He said he “would like to reassure the passengers that every effort is being made to resolve this delay as soon as possible.”

Gouveia said, too, that replacement parts for the airplane were being flown to New York to resolve the problem, but that flight has been delayed by a snowstorm which covered New York.

While Dynamic is trying to get both planes fixed, Gouveia said, another of the company’s aeroplanes is expected in Guyana from Ecuador, to transport to New York those passengers who have been stranded here. The plane, with capacity to transport some 280 passengers at one time, was on its way to Ecuador in South America at about 14:48 hours on Sunday, and was expected in Guyana last night.

Gouveia said yesterday afternoon that he was awaiting further details from Dynamic in New York concerning the further movement of other passengers from CJIA and JFK.