Guyanese now have another option when travelling to New York with the introduction of a new airline, Universal Airlines Inc which will have its inaugural flight on December 12.

However, the airline's first flight will go through Port of Spain. There will be five flights a week, three direct ones to New York and two via Trinidad & Tobago. After some time, the airline will also be flying the Georgetown-Paramaribo-New York and Paramaribo-Georgetown routes.

Universal Airlines, which has been assigned the two-letter code UW and accounting code 751 is owned by two Guyanese female entrepreneurs, C. Harpaul and R. Singh.

President of the airline's office in Guyana located at 238 Camp & Quamina streets, Cummingsburg, Sudarshan Singh, Vice-President, Mark De Freitas and other staff members, Shanti Sawh and Sabrina Brijmohan, met travel agents yesterday in the Hibiscus Room of Hotel Tower.

At the moment the airline has wet-leased an aircraft from Lot Airways in Poland. The Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, which was manufactured in 1995, is relatively new by US airline standards. It was said that in the interest of passenger comfort the airline has opted for 243 seats instead of the full capacity of over 300 seats. The 243 seats consist of 18 premium business class and 225 coach seats with extremely generous leg room.

During the meeting it was disclosed that the airlines' airport handling and catering services would be contracted out, but would be constantly monitored to ensure that customers received the best care and courtesy.

The Lotus Restaurant located in the proximity of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri has been awarded the catering contract while it is expected that Timehri Handling Services will handle check-in and ramp services.

Some travel agents had questions about the handling service as it was being operated by some of the same persons in the now defunct GA 2000 airline.

It was disclosed that four persons from Lot Airways were expected in the country yesterday and they will examine the handling service. Only then would Universal Airlines award the contract.

The travel agents will receive a ten per cent commission on each ticket they sell.

According to a handout given to the travel agents the two Guyanese women tried for many years to achieve the goal of owning an airline and after about 14 years of planning, their airline finally received its carrier licence on July 8 and scheduled service authority on September 10 this year.

But the disaster in New York on September 11 affected the industry and though faced with a few setbacks, the airline was able to obtain the necessary authority from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to start scheduled services from December 13.

The New York office of the airline was opened on November 1, and is staffed by Guyanese, Trinidadians and Americans while the Georgetown office will be opened next Tuesday.