CHIEF Executive Officer/Chairman of Guyana Airways Corporation Inc. Colin Abrams, on Friday told a press conference that their company’s operations, which was expected to start in Guyana, had come to a halt because their business name was “unregistered.”

The move, he explained, was costing him a lot of money since the company was involved in a legal tussle in the court to have its business name registered and to get approval from the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCCA) to start operations in Guyana.

Abrams said they had been registered since 2016 and every entity had an opportunity to object to the name; ‘Guyana Airways Corporation Inc.’ within a six-month period after which they would have received their registration.

He told reporters at the head office at Barrack Street, Kingston, that they had their attorneys prepare the paperwork and the name was available since the law states that names must not be identical.

Abrams added that in most places in the world, identical means the same. Their interpretation is that it is too similar because the last registered name was Guyana Air 2000.

He said, “There is obviously something political attached to it because nothing occurs in a vacuum and a young lady who studied in London, returned to Guyana and denied our registration just like that.”

Abrams told the press conference that the registration of the name is a legal matter and there is something punitive attached to it because it was costing him and the company money while noting that attorneys’ fees in Guyana were not cheap.

He added, “It is a setback for me simply because GCCA got involved in it and we were totally ignoring the fact that one individual sent us a letter out of the blue two years later.”

Abrams said within that six-month period nobody objected to their name and in Guyana most people think they are more powerful than the law. He said, “We received a letter from GCCA a week and a half ago telling us that they received notification from the Registration Board that Guyana Airways was no longer registered and I found it quite odd because we got notification the same time they did. And that’s not the law, we were served by a court marshal telling us we were not registered and it is totally illegal what they did.”

Abrams told reporters that there were forces out there that cannot be controlled and they do whatever they want and say what they want.
The former Delta Airline pilot said based on the court outcome the next step is to send out staffers to Miami to be trained to start operations. Everything else was on stream to operate. Abrams added that they were about to start operations when they received the letter. However as soon as they get the ‘hiccup’ out of the way they will be ready for business.

In answering to a question Abrams said, “I cannot say if anything was filed in the court, we have a team of lawyers working for us, but it is a monumental task and financial loss for us right now and we have utilised the right channels to establish our business.”

Abrams stated that they choose to use the name Guyana Airways Corporation Inc. because the name was available and separate from Guyana Air 2000 and for 18 years there was no airline to this country and he wanted to bring one to Guyana. He explained that Guyana Air 2000 logo was never copyrighted and they went about things the right way.

He told reporters that he had spent millions of US dollars to set up the airline. The business has seven directors – both local and overseas – and he was the Chairman/CEO of the board since they did not have any shareholders.

Abrams disclosed that the business was being financed by him and as a former Delta airline pilot who retired two months ago after 19 years, also sold his practice overseas as a physician to come to Guyana to start the airline.

According to him, no one has been trained as yet but they have hired 80 flight attendants, 15 pilots and about 110-115 local staffers who are in the hiring pool until they are on the payroll.

Abrams related that before their operations begin, every staff has to be qualified and they will open the airline with two 737 aircraft.