“It’s up to them” – GCAA Head on Qatar Airways operations in Guyana

The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) recently inked an Air Services Agreement to offer new routes from Guyana. However, Director General of the Authority, Egbert Field has expressed that the decision rests upon Qatar to determine when they will begin operations here.

In an invited comment on Friday, Field explained that the agreement was signed but the two countries are yet to work out the dynamics of operations, the number of flights and other factors. As such, he said they are still waiting for the analysis to be finalised.
“We signed an Air Services Agreement with Qatar. That Air Services Agreement will allow any airline from Qatar to fly to Guyana. As to identification of which airline, you have Qatar Airways and I think there may be another one or two airlines. We’re just waiting on them. These things take time because they’ll have to do their own evaluation of the route, work out how many flights, the frequency of flights and I can see them really moving in that direction of analysing the various figures. If they will commence operation, it’s up to them,” the Director General indicated.
The agreement permits Qatar’s national carrier, Qatar Airways, to operate any number of passenger and cargo flights as well as cooperation between the carriers concerned. Qatar Airways will also be given permission to have an operation centre in Guyana to fly to any country in the region and other regions as well. Qatar has already expressed an interest in entering Guyana’s oil market, a move which is expected to bring a number of benefits to the country’s oil sector.
This new potential link is a great boon for passengers wishing to head to Asia, or to destinations in Africa. The central hub of Qatar would open up massive connectivity opportunities for the citizens of Guyana.
Since the discovery of oil in 2015, Guyana has already attracted several major airlines. American Airlines has already begun operations in Guyana and another popular American carrier, JetBlue, is set to begin operating by April 2020.

JetBlue
Giving an update on JetBlue’s status, Field stated that the company is “anxious” to commence operations. While he does not foresee any delays, some documents are yet to be submitted by the carrier.
“JetBlue is very very anxious and eager to commence their operations. It’s an established company so I don’t think there will be much delay when it comes to working with their documents. We’re awaiting the remaining set of documents from them so as to evaluate. I do not suspect that there will be any delays in terms of their startup period,” he indicated.
The GCAA Head added, “It’s the standard documents which airlines would submit from us. Things like the type of aircraft within their fleet, their operations manual, maintenance manual and these are documents which are evaluated by the authority”.
The New York-based carrier will begin to operate direct flights between Guyana and New York. In fact, tickets for flights are already on sale in the United States (US).
The non-stop flight will travel from New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport to Guyana’s Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) on a daily basis with the carrier’s new A321neo aircraft.
With this new service, passengers will enjoy five hours of travel time between the two countries. Guyana will be the fourth country in South America JetBlue serves in the coming months.