The Aircraft Owners Associa-tion of Guyana (AOAG) yesterday said there was an urgent need for modern air traffic control systems at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri and that the government should expedite this.
In a press release, the AOAG said it has been made aware that Chairman of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Brian James has made recommendations to government for the upgrade of navigational aids at the Timehri airport.
The AOAG said it also understood that Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn has been actively involved in sourcing the necessary funding for this equipment.
Supporting the move, the AOAG said it would encourage the government to treat the matter with urgency.
It noted that concerns over the air traffic control systems at Timehri were recently raised in the Stabroek News.
In response to concerns raised in a letter to this newspaper late last year Acting Director of Civil Aviation Zulfikar Mohamed said that the equipment in use at the airport while adequate to minimum safety standards, needed to be upgraded.
Captain Gerry Gouveia speaking as a pilot, owner of Roraima Airways Ltd, member of the AOAG, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Vice Chairman of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana had told Stabroek News that the letter which highlighted the issue hit on points of concern that should be addressed particularly in the light of aviation safety.
He had said then, "I did get to speak to some air traffic control officers and I am concerned that no modernization has been done in terms of the radios and navigation equipment, from the position of aviation safety." He also suggested that there should be an independent needs assessment as well as improvement in the working conditions of the officers there.
General Manager of Air Services Ltd, Fazel Khan told Stabroek News around the same time that the Instrument Landing System (ILS) was not and has not been working for years while emphasizing that this was a crucial piece of equipment. The Non Directional Beacon (NDB) has also not been working for years, he added.
Acknowledging the situation at the airport the aircraft owners association said in the release yesterday that several navigational aids at Timehri are unserviceable and have been so for some time, including the ILS, Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) and the Automatic Distance Finder (ADF). The AOAG is also aware that national air traffic control systems for positioning aircraft in Guyana's airspace, communications for safe in-flight separation and landing approaches in bad weather or conditions of poor visibility are seriously lacking.
The association took time to commend Guyana's air traffic control officers noting that they have performed with considerable credit in maintaining air safety under difficult conditions by resorting to elaborate in-flight procedures using very basic air navigation resources. Some of the difficulties encountered at the airport recently include an incident last April during which night flights to the CJIA were stopped temporarily because of an inaccurate barometer at the airport's control tower. BWIA had cancelled and rescheduled some of its flights.
On July 21, a North American Airlines flight was forced to delay landing for nearly three hours because the airport was closed as a result of bad weather. As a result of these incidents, questions were raised about the availability of equipment to assist the navigation of air traffic in bad weather.
Concerns had been raised about the state of the air traffic control systems in light of the anticipated increase in air traffic for this year's cricket world cup in March.