– sees CJIA as a ‘vital transit hub’

THE Business Committee of the International Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD) Summit has embarked on a campaign for the opening of an air travel route between Guyana and West Africa.

The Committee, which came out of a four-day summit held here earlier this year, is one of several advocating for the connection between the African continent and its 350 million descendants living in the Diaspora, and, among other things, the restoration of their economic independence and growth.

CEO and UN Fellow, Dr. Melissa Varswyk told the Guyana Chronicle, “Bringing People of African Descent in the Diaspora with Africans on the continent is top on the agenda, and Guyana is being identified as the hub for direct transport to Western Africa.”
The way Dr Varswyk sees it, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project is a “vital transit hub” for travellers connecting to Africa from the Caribbean, Latin America and the North American region.

And, being a connection point, she said, Guyana and the rest of the region could benefit economically from cultural exchanges, the sharing of knowledge, skills, and tourism, as well as a shorter transit time.

IDPAD is of the view that Guyana’s geographical position as the only English- speaking nation in South America can help play a lead role in addressing travel woes, particularly for New World territories.

She said that the organisation has come to realise that non-African carriers are transporting about 80 per cent of the intercontinental traffic to and from Africa.
And this is not because Africa lacks airlines, Dr Varswyk said, but that several African carriers with strong safety records are prevented from flying to Europe.

“These restrictions have detrimental effects on the growth of the air transportation sector in Africa,” she said. “Further, most of these airlines are exorbitantly expensive, and have to fly through their countries of origin where African travellers are required to have transit visas before they can be permitted to travel through these ports, onward to their final destinations.

“Due also to the lack of embassies and or diplomatic cooperation, final destinations usually require visas. This means that on average, Africans travelling to any destination, especially outside of the continent, have to spend twice the amount of money on visas, notwithstanding the fact that the cost for any visa for Africans is way higher than what other people in other parts of the world would pay.

“These barriers,” Dr Varswyk said, “have meant that few Africans, on the continent and in the Diaspora, can travel and trade outside the continent.”

Dr. Varswyk said that IDPAD is therefore working to facilitate and lessen travel restrictions experienced by travellers to and from the African continent, and has initiated discussions with leading airlines on the African continent which have the capacity to operate mid-Atlantic.

These discussions, she said, are already being coordinated, and that the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, the Government of Guyana, the International Civil Aviation Organisation and regional countries have already been engaged in discussion on the matter.