Airports to remain closed until August 1
Returning Guyanese being sanitised upon entry at the CJIA (DPI photo)
Returning Guyanese being sanitised upon entry at the CJIA (DPI photo)

THE scheduled July 1 reopening of the airports to international passenger flights has been deferred to August 1, following the steep increases of COVID-19 cases that Guyana continues to record.

Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Lt. Col. (Ret’d) Egbert Field

The postponement however, will not affect the continuation of limited repatriation flights, which is being coordinated to bring Guyanese stranded overseas back home.

Outgoing flights, cargo flights, medivac flights, technical stops, and special authorised flights will also still continue. The postponement was announced by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) in a statement issued last Wednesday

“This decision was made after careful assessment of the current COVID-19 situation in Guyana and other international ports where flights to Guyana originates. In recent days, Guyana saw steep increases in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases,” the statement noted.

Last Tuesday, Guyana recorded 10 new cases of the COVID-19, while the country’s highest daily record of cases occurred last week Tuesday, when 21 cases were recorded in one day.

The re-opening of the airports to international flights would’ve marked the commencement of Phase Two of a Four-Phase programme to return the airports and travel to normalcy.

Phase One of the programme was the planning stage which involved meetings between the GCAA and the government, airport authorities and operators, local tourism bodies and other stakeholders’ groups for a collective understanding. Phase Two was the implementation stage with the re-opening of airports to some Regional travel.

Phase Three would see the expansion to the acceptance of foreign nationals from areas like North America; while Phase Four, which would extend into 2021, would see the country going back to normal or adjusting its travel SOPs based on the situation.

It was during a virtual meeting in early June that GCAA Director General Lt. Col. (Ret’d) Egbert Field announced the planned July re-opening. However, in an earlier interview, Field cautioned that the phases of the programme would be contingent on how the COVID-19 situation developed.

“As much as you will set a timeline for these phases, it will be fluid because the situation of each phase may depend on the effectiveness and the implementation of not only the individual measures in your State, but also the prevailing environment in the points of origin,” Field had said in an earlier interview in May.

Guyana’s two international airports have been closed to incoming international flights since midnight on March 18, after Guyana recorded its first COVID-19 case on March 11.

The airports were initially scheduled to close for a two week period, however, as cases in the country increased, the closure continued to be extended.

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