Stabroek News
April 6, 2001

The twice postponed GA 2000 flight to New York, which had been scheduled to leave at midnight on Wednesday had to be cancelled after one of two replacement parts for the airline was left in Trinidad.

Tej Parmesar, finance controller of the airline and currently in charge of the administration, said the part from Chicago, USA arrived safely but another part being sourced out of London, England on a BWIA flight was stuck in Trinidad since 5.00 pm on Wednesday. The part from Chicago came in escorted on a BWIA flight to Guyana two hours later. The part from London was unescorted.

Parmesar said that Operations Manager, Maurice Gajadar, flew to Trinidad yesterday morning to recover the part and by lunch yesterday, the airline's lone 757 was repaired and operational.

He said simulation tests were done and the four engineers working on the aircraft were "extremely satisfied" with the way it was working.

However, Parmesar said that because of the snags, he wanted to be sure there would be a flight out and this was being assured for midnight last night. But this flight's destination is Canada. When Stabroek News spoke with Parmesar, he indicated that the passengers were being contacted about the 9.00 pm check-in for the flight at midnight. He was confident of a flight load of about 130 passengers.

About 40 passengers who could not be contacted turned up at Timehri for the New York flight on Wednesday evening only to be told that the flight was not going to leave. Parmesar said that most of these were transported back home.

Last Friday, GA 2000 began experiencing difficulties with its aircraft. First, the ground handling staff in Canada caused the aircraft door to be damaged in an accident. The flight from Canada had to be postponed and arrived here on Sunday instead. But a flight to New York, which was scheduled for Saturday, had to be put off as a result of the accident.

When the flight did take off on Monday evening, it had to turn back after it was found that the cabin was losing pressure because of a faulty air duct. The flight was scheduled to leave at midnight on Wednesday but was eventually cancelled. Several passengers had asked to be transferred to North American Airlines or BWIA.

Parmesar yesterday noted that in the past six months, the aircraft had not had any difficulties and it only began experiencing these last Friday.

The lease company is to be written to for compensation for the losses GA 2000 has incurred as a result of the pressurisation problem.

GA 2000, privatised in April 1999, is also experiencing cash flow difficulties and is seeking an equity injection to turn the business around. The government retains a minority interest in the airline.