WHILE the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has made a proposal for phase two of the re-opening of Guyana’s airports to commence on Tuesday, September 1, the body must await the approval of the National COVID-19 Task Force before this takes place, as every stakeholder must be at a state of readiness to ensure the safety of all during travel.

“The airport is ready; the Civil Aviation Authority is also ready but we cannot do things in isolation. We have to make sure that everybody is on the same page and everybody is ready. If one part is not ready then it cannot happen,” GCAA’s Director-General Lt. Col. Egbert Field said on Friday. He added that the Ministry of Health is an important stakeholder in this decision.

Phase one of the planned re-opening included the readiness of Guyana’s aiports and other stakeholders while phase two would facilitate flights, apart from repatriation flights, catered to permanent residents, international workers and diplomats.

Phase three will include limited flights and flights open to foreign nationals, and the final phase, phase four, will include the removal of travel restrictions on various states.

Later, on Friday, during a tour of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, also confirmed that no approval had been given as yet.

“That is a matter that will come from the COVID -19 Task Force as it relates to readiness but, from my standpoint, as the minister responsible, everything that is necessary to be done, the day we get the greenlight for re-opening, must be completed for re-opening, including the possibility of testing on arrival. That is something that is being explored,” he said.

Earlier in August, Minister Edghill had stated that while everything on Guyana’s side would soon be ready for phase two of the reopening, whether commercial airlines would be ready to fly the Guyana route is another matter.

Field agreed, noting that airlines must first assess whether there would be steady interest in passengers for commercial flights before they decide to operate a route on a set schedule, profitably.

He said that repatriation flights are different because those are chartered flights for which a passenger pays divided portions of the charge for the aircraft to fly. In the case of scheduled flights, whether or not there is a low number of passengers, the aircraft must fly.

“[Reopening] doesn’t mean that when you open the airport they [international airlines] will follow suit in running commercial flights. They’re going to look at the amount of people who will be moving and assess if it’s profitable,” Field said.

As it relates to regional travel, Trinidad and Tobago remains an important player as it is the home of Caribbean airlines but the country has not yet relaxed its airport restrictions to a notable level.

As of August 27, Trinidad and Tobago reported a total of 1,476 cases with 867 being active cases and 44 non-nationals testing positive for the virus under their phase two of the epidemic.

“Caribbean Airlines, they have their crew based out in Trinidad and their aircraft are based in Trinidad. So, the opening of Port of Spain is vital to them too, otherwise they would not be able to run the kind of commercial operation they want to,” Field said.

Meanwhile, plans are still on schedule for Caribbean Airlines to operate a repatriation flight from Port of Spain, Trinidad to Guyana on September 9. The proposed flight is one in a series that the local authority has approved to get stranded Guyanese back to their homeland.