New landing equipment for CJIA in 2020

With the announcement that the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) is expected to be in full operation, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCCA) has signed a contract with a Canadian firm to supply the airport with new equipment to aid in the landing of aircrafts at the facility.
The contract was signed on Tuesday, the Public Infrastructure Ministry said in a social media post.
The firm, IntelCan, which is based in Montreal, Canadam will be tasked with supplying and installing an upgraded Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) at the CJIA, Timehri, East Bank Demerara by February, 2020.
The ILS is an approach which employs two radio signals that provides a pilot with vertical and horizontal guidance during the landing phase of an aircraft. The localiser (LOC) provides azimuth guidance, while the glideslope (GS) defines the correct vertical descent profile.
The Ministry noted in its post that the upgrade of the runway at the airport will now be boosted further with the modern ILS instrument to enhance the landing capability of aircrafts, which will also alleviate the need for diversions of aircraft in minimal weather conditions.
In addition to the ILS, the aviation systems will also be boosted with a Digital Automatic Terminal Information System (D-ATIS) to provide pilots with real time information on weather and safety.
As of now, this information is provided to pilots by the Air Traffic Controllers without automation.
In the future, the D-ATIS will provide automatic data to the aircraft every hour.
Further, the Ministry said the acquisition of the new Digital Automatic Terminal Information System will align the GCAA with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Global Interoperability Plans, which aims to provide a seamless operation and experience for pilots operating in any part of the world.
On July 12, subject Minister David Patterson told reporters that the CJIA would be in full operation in the coming week.
Calls made to the Minister for an update proved futile. Nonetheless, he had noted during the previous interview that once a warranty is provided for the heating, ventilating and air conditioning system, the airport will be fully operable.
The expansion of the CJIA has been ongoing for a number of years, and while the APNU/AFC Government has repeatedly blamed the former administration for not including necessary plans in the project during the initial stages, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has stated that the absence of those necessary plans is a deliberate strategy to create opportunities for local contractors.
In 2012, under the PPP/C administration, Guyana secured a US$138 million loan from the China Exim (Export-Import) Bank to fund the expansion and modernisation project, for which the Guyana Government was slated to inject some US$12 million.
The A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC), when in Opposition, had cut the funding the then PPP/C Government had allocated for the expansion project.
When the coalition Government came into power in 2015, the project was put on hold, but after discussions between Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), it was later announced that the project would be continued but a number of downgrades were done to the design.
The extension of works into 2019 comes in disparity to an earlier commitment by Government, whereby it pledged that the works associated with the expansion would have been completed by the last quarter of 2018.
Upon completion, the CJIA in its downgraded design expansion, is expected to have four air passenger boarding bridges for arrivals and departures, a 450-seat departure area, escalators and elevators, in addition to an extended runway catering for larger categories of aircraft.
In the meantime, the much-anticipated financial audit of the airport expansion project is expected to commence shortly once the Public Infrastructure Ministry supplies certain information to the Auditor General’s Office.
This is according to Auditor General Deodat Sharma, who told Guyana Times during a telephone interview that his office is awaiting word from the subject Ministry as to when the relevant documents will be made available.
This special audit comes in light of a series of calls mounting for a thorough probe into the CJIA expansion project by a wide section of society.
For some time, the Public Infrastructure Ministry has faced questions over the CJIA expansion project’s costs and delayed construction.