Cabinet is likely to make a decision today as to whether it would strip Guyana Airways 2000 (GA 2000) of its route rights and flag carrier status, which it then plans to put up for public tender.

According to Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, GA 2000 had until Friday to inform the Cabinet of its plans for resuming its operations, which it suspended in May.

Meanwhile, two new airlines are poised to step into the slot, which GA 2000 is likely to vacate. They are Universal Airlines and Air Guyana Inc.

GA 2000 suspended its operations because it failed to conclude a strategic alliance that would have allowed it to renew the lease of its aircraft. Since then it has also failed to lock in a strategic operating alliance that would have allowed it to resume its operations.

The government has also indicated that it did not intend to bail out the airline and that its employees were likely to find jobs with the airlines that would step in to fill the slot. Some 130 GA 2000 employees have lost their jobs as a result of the suspension of its operations, though the company still operates a handling service at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.

Sanjay Datadin, attorney for Air Guyana, told Stabroek News that the airline has supplied most of the documentation required by the Civil Aviation Department to allow it to operate a scheduled service to the United States of America - Miami and New York. It will operate a charter service to Toronto, as there is no bilateral aviation agreement between Guyana and Canada. GA 2000 had also operated a charter service to Toronto.

Datadin said that Air Guyana Inc was interested in acquiring the flag carrier status, which GA 2000 had enjoyed, but explained that the airline would have to operate a scheduled service to enjoy that right. He said too that there were other advantages to running a scheduled service, such as lower airport fees, than if operating a charter service.

He said that as a scheduled airline Air Guyana would be able to lock-in a strategic partnership with European and North American airlines that would allow it to offer onward connections to European and to destinations beyond Miami and New York.

Datadin told Stabroek News that the principals of the new airline were a mix of overseas and local Guyanese and a Miami-based aviation company from which it would be wet leasing its aircraft.