Over 1 million passengers processed at Guyana’s airports in 2024 – CJIA’s CEO

– processing of cargo increased by 20%
– over 15,000 prohibited items confiscated from passengers

Air travel in Guyana for 2024 has soared with over one million passengers being processed at the various ports of entry – Eugene Correia and the Cheddi Jagan International (CJIA) Airports.
This significant achievement was highlighted by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Ramesh Ghir during an end-of-year presser hosted by the Public Works Ministry.
The CEO highlighted that some 1,072,785 passengers were processed.
“I think it’s in the news a few years ago when President Irfan Ali did make that prediction that we will process a million passengers by 2025 we actually achieved that target in 2024… If one were to look at all ports of entry, we have processed 1,072,000 passengers with CJIA accounting for 856,000, Ogle 72,000, Molson Creek 114,000 and Lethem 28,000.”

According to statistics presented, this number represents a 15 per cent increase with 142,785 more passengers being processed in 2024 when compared to 2023 which saw a total of 930,000 passengers being processed at the country’s ports of entry.
As it relates to the CJIA, the CEO stated that the facility has seen significant growth over the years while adding that in 2024, the airport had processed over 850,000 passengers – a representation of a 17 per cent increase when compared to 2023.
“To give you some statistics, passenger numbers in 2024 amounted to 856,830, which is a 17 per cent increase over last year which means we processed 127,380 more passengers.”
Moreover, the CEO stated that the airport also recorded a 17 per cent increase in international landings last year with 5,083 international aircraft compared to 4,341 in 2023. He attributed the increase in air traffic to several new air carriers.
“In this business, we take at minimum two to three years to track an airline… also, because we have these additional carriers, we increased seating this year by 247,000 from 1.2 million to 1.4 million… This year, we had United, SkyHigh Dominicana, Avianca, and Liat. We already have KLM.”
Notably, some existing carriers had also added some flights to their schedules and a few new routes during the year.

Meanwhile, as it relates to cargo, Ghir noted that significant growth was also recorded with over 13 million kilograms (Kg) of cargo being processed in 2024.
“This year, we processed 13.5 million kilograms of cargo compared to 11.2 million kilograms, which is a 20 per cent increase. Both imports and exports. Imports increased by 80 per cent; export increased by 29 per cent.”
Additionally, he related that in a bid to address the increase in traffic, the CJIA administration has beefed up its training programmes for staff.
“We now have the ability, we have our own security staff who are fully trained, not only to train our staff at the airport, but we’ve also been helping the other agencies. We did some training at Ogle for example with their staff. Over 956 persons were trained in various areas. We also trained the law enforcement agency at the airport on the use of the various scanners.”
Moreover, he highlighted that several prohibited items were confiscated at the airport last year. “In terms of prohibited items being detected at the airport, over 15,000 items and I really want to commend the security staff at the airport for the work they’ve been doing. 7,000 plus bottles of liquids, gels, and things that were not permitted to go on the aircraft were seized. Over 483 sharp objects, 7,000 plus powdered substances and 28 live rounds of ammunition were confiscated also.”
Further, Ghir reported that the airport’s staff has been effective in addressing the issue of items being lost with some 81 per cent of those items being recovered and returned to the owners.
“Another aspect that we are very proud of is our ability to address passenger complaints, especially about missing items. During 2024, we had 499 complaints received from passengers and airport users of missing items. 81 per cent of those, we were successfully able to recover and give them back to the owners. They include 101 luggage, 50 laptops, 36 mobile phones, 34 travel documents, several pieces of watches, earphones, duty-free items and importantly, several million dollars in cash and jewellery.”