THE Government of Guyana has granted permission for two established companies to import aircraft for their operations.
Companies in every sector have been constrained by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic but this move shows that businesses are still investing in the economy despite the existing conditions.

Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, said government recently granted the approval for seven aircraft to be imported to Guyana. Five of those aircraft were purchased by one company while the remaining two is for another player in the airline industry.

Edghill said the request for importation of those aircraft was “sitting on the table” for a while, so the new government thought it best to grant approval.
It is likely that those aircraft will service the domestic market for now since international and regional travel has been severely affected by the necessary COVID-19 control measures, which have been implemented by countries, including Guyana, to curb the spread of the pandemic.
The Guyana Chronicle had reported that though saving lives must remain on the front burner, there is also need for an “antidote” for the ailing tourism sector, which, to some extent, has already hit rock bottom.

With 286,732 total visitors in 2018, it was estimated that travel and tourism injected approximately GY$62.6B directly into Guyana’s economy, making tourism its second largest export sector. A replication of this is, however, looking virtually impossible, as tourism continues to take a hit because of COVID-19.
A possible solution which was proposed by Director-General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Lt. Col. (ret’d), Egbert Fields, and President of the Guyana Tourism and Hospitality Association (THAG), was to focus on domestic tourism in the absence of foreign tourists.
“If we start talking about domestic tourism, we would have healthy tourism, as we await international tourism,” said Fields.

Up to May, domestic travel remained one of the main reasons why the local aviation industry is still alive, and this is premised on the fact that weekly domestic flights was at 92.4 per cent while weekly “overflights” have dropped to 9.7 per cent, moving from 480 in January to 47 to date. The drop in flights is also owed to the fact that Guyana’s international airports have been closed to passenger flights for just about two months.

And, with the possibility of the COVID-19 pandemic becoming endemic, with the absence of treatment or a vaccine, Fields said stakeholders will have to look at the best ways of co-existing with the disease, in order to keep the aviation and tourism sectors alive.

To this end, he believes that a number of things can be done to sustain tourism. And, in line with his idea of pushing domestic tourism, he advised tourism stakeholders to develop new tour packages, which target local companies and individuals, and also introduce subsidised packages for Guyanese. In order to pull this off, he believes that local operators should explore collaborations.

The arrival of seven new aircraft presents an opportunity for these options to be explored, and the mechanical assets will be supported by the creation of two airstrips, one at Mahaica and the other at Charity. Minister Edghill said government has approved the applications for the construction of those airstrips.