When one enters an aircraft to travel overseas or around Guyana, there are several persons who combine to ensure that you get to your destination.

In fact, many persons would sit back, relax, plug their headphones into their ears and wait until the plane is ready to land. For some, the pilots and the air hostesses are seen as the more important persons on the flight. However, there is another professional who carries the responsibility of not only ensuring a flight arrives safely, but dozens of flights daily; in some cases hourly.

He/she happens to be the air traffic controller.
But who exactly is an air traffic controller?
According to the official definitions, an “ATCO” can be described as a personnel responsible for the safe, orderly and expeditious flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. He/she is usually stationed at an airport’s control tower and the services are provided to flights which are landing, taking off or overflying a country. The controller speaks directly with the pilots of aircrafts, issuing clearances and instructions at all times to ensure flights are separated from each other.

He /she is required to be highly specialised with adequate knowledge of Guyana’s terrain, the rules of the air, how to respond to an aircraft in an emergency and even being able to undertake the job regardless of personal problems.
Seasoned air traffic controllers, Roy Sookoo, and, Courtney Frank, are among the men and women who ensure each aircraft takes off and land safely at their respective destinations.
The two have been on the job since June of 1988, and having started on the same batch, they are looked up to as mentors by the younger brigade of controllers at the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), the body which regulates aviation here.

For “Mr. Frank” as he is called, he had higher aims as a teenager. ”I wanted to be an astronaut,” he said, but being poor and unable to reach those heights at the time, he decided to fill a vacancy which was advertised by the Civil Aviation Department at the time. “I have no regrets,” he said, noting that he is able to function at all the facilities of the Air Traffic Services Tower at Timehri and at Ogle.

“I love the job because no two shifts are the same, there is always something different,” he said. At the moment he is performing the duties of Manager, ATC Training, a position which can be demanding, since he is ultimately in charge of the younger persons being trained to man the controls.
In Guyana, the profession can be viewed as one which requires a mammoth dedication to time, love for the job and being able to adjust to multiple situations be it a change in weather pattern at the airport, an aircraft accident and even being able to cope with personal issues.

The job of a Guyanese air traffic controller is made even more hectic since there are no radar services available at the Air Traffic Services Tower facilities at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) or the Eugene F Correia International Airport at Ogle. However , there is ADS-B Surveillance and through the use of repeater ground stations across the country ,a screen in the tower at Timehri is able to display each aircraft’s position thereby aiding the controller in separating the planes as they fly.

For Roy Sookoo, currently the Manager of Air Traffic Services of the GCAA, the field is one which brings him much satisfaction. Sookoo draws his motivation from his ability to serve the citizens of Guyana, “wasith due diligence with safety being paramount,” he added.
As a public servant, over the years he has seen many good projects become a reality at the GCAA, the latest being the installation of the ADS-B project.

He says the expansion of the CJIA is another project he admires. The transition from procedural to area control service in Guyana’s upper airspace and the training of new air traffic controllers are among other areas within the field which he embraces.
On Friday, October 20, the aviation field observed International Day of the Air Traffic Controller and the GCAA recognised and honoured its air transport staff for their invaluable and untiring service.

According to the aviation umbrella body, it employs 2010 persons directly and indirectly and contributes 20.7 billion dollars annually to the economy. “Our local team, together with air traffic controllers worldwide, daily guide 100,000 aircraft safely from departure to destination,” it noted.
Without air traffic controllers, the GCAA said, 3.2% of Guyana’s GDP would not be realised, the Tourism Sector would have been almost non-existent and the goods and services upon which aviation depends would not have been had.

The body said that together with the staff association, the Guyana Association of Air Traffic Control Officers ( GAATCO ) , it has collaborated as it has always done, to demonstrate its gratitude to the Air Traffic Control Officers, Air Traffic Control Assistants, Aeronautical Information Management Officers, Trainees, Technicians and administrative and other support staff, as the sector celebrated the 56th Anniversary of the International Day of The Air Traffic Controller.