American Airlines to resume services in Guyana on Monday

Following the suspension of its services back in March, after the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) hit, American Airlines has made a decision to restart operations in Guyana, effective from Monday.
Operations would resume with six flights per week to Miami, and this would be followed by non-stop flights to New York, which would be rolled out by December.
On October 12, Guyana’s two main ports of entry – the Eugene F Correia International and the Cheddi Jagan International airports – were reopened to commercial flights. An important aspect of allowing incoming passengers is a negative PCR test, which must be proven by persons entering the country. This type of test is separated into two categories and can be done either within 72 hours or seven days of the flight.
In regard to the seven-day window, travellers would be asked to pay for a second test at the airport. If someone tests positive during their second PCR test, they would be picked up by the Health Ministry’s specialised COVID-19 team.
A number of commercial carriers have already reintroduced flights to and from Guyana since the Government moved to reopen the ports.
Eastern Airlines has introduced four flights weekly from Miami and New York; COPA Airlines has started three flights weekly from Panama, while American Airlines has announced six flights weekly from Miami.
Beginning November 1, Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) will be flying between the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and the Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Canada. CAL said flights would be operated each Monday and Friday, with connections available from Trinidad and Barbados.
CAL has already reintroduced its commercial service between Guyana and New York, which took effect on October 19 following reopening of the country’s international ports last month.
A few days ago, JetBlue announced December 11 as the launch date for its commercial flight between New York and Guyana. The airline announced that flights would initially be operated up to four times weekly, with seats available for purchase starting on October 27.
JetBlue had originally announced the new route between New York City and Georgetown in September 2019, but temporarily paused the sale of seats and adjusted the launch schedule in response to changes in global travel demand.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Government is also engaging Virgin Atlantic and InterCaribbean Airways on adding Guyana to its list of destinations.
Local authorities had closed the country’s borders – including the two main international airports – since March 2020, after the first imported case of COVID-19 was detected. From then to August, the CJIA recorded losses of over one billion dollars due to the pandemic.
Figures representing aircraft seats occupied between January and July 2020, when compared with the same period in 2019, revealed that the number of available aircraft seats was 229,126, or 132 per cent less than the 532,602 available in 2019. This year, international aircraft landing has also declined by 137 per cent, from 2,380 to 1,005.
Regarding the movement of cargo, while the airport is closed to passenger movements, cargo operations continued, albeit in a limited manner. For cargo imports, there was a 19 per cent reduction: from 3,101,936 kilograms to 2,501,345 kilograms.
Meanwhile, cargo exports have declined by 22 per cent: from 1,652,028 kilograms to 1,294,391 kilograms. (G12)