Demerara Waves Online News- Guyana Riding on the Crest of Truth
Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 April 2016, 13:26 by Denis Chabrol
Left: Chief Executive Officer of Roraima Airways, Gerry Gouveia; Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, George Talbot and (right) Chief Executive Officer of Dynamic International Airways, Karen Klaus; and Head of the New York Organising Committee for Guyana’s 50th Independence Anniversary, Rickford Burke witnessing the unveiling of the Guyana Independence Logo on the aircraft.
Dynamic International Airways and the Guyanese-owned Roraima Airways are teaming up to convert the Cheddi Jagan International Airport a hub for flights to South American countries and the United States.
Chief Executive Officer of Roraima Airways, Capt. Gerry Gouveia made the announcement at the unveiling of a Guyana 50th Independence Anniversary logo on a Dynamic Airways aircraft at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“We are going to make Timehri International Airport the hub to feed traffic out of New York into Trinidad, Suriname, Boa Vista and Puerto Ordaz (in Venezuela), using that international airport that the IDB said cannot be used as a hub; we will make it into a hub,” he said. Gouveia boasted that Dynamic Airways has been registering 95 percent on-time departures and almost 90 percent load factors.
Later questioned by Demerara Waves Online News, Gouveia explained that Dynamic would sell tickets from the United States for tickets to Suriname, Trinidad, Venezuela and Brazil. “With an inter-line arrangement that we are developing in Guyana, when the aircraft arrives at Timehri the passengers for Boa Vista (Brazil), the passengers for Suriname will come off that plane. While Guyanese passengers go home, they will board another flight and then they will fan-out into the neighbouring countries, using Timehri as the connecting hub back into North America,” he said. He said InselAir would next month offer the connections to Boa Vista next month from the Dutch Caribbean.
In the case of Suriname, he said Roraima Airways would fly passengers aboard its recently acquired Trislander to and from Zorg-en-Hoop airport in Suriname to connect to flights in Guyana.
Chief Operating Officer of Dynamic Airways, Karen Klaus told Demerara Waves Online News said her carrier would be assigning more aircraft to partner with Roraima Airways “to feed into all those othr cities.”
Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), Ambassador George Talbot, in his remarks, highlighted the significant engagement by Guyana at the UN and Guyanese internationally. “Guyaa’s engagement has been official but also through the actions of its citizens and as a result, one might say that Guyana is arguably home to one of the most internationally mobile populations in the world and on a per capita basis maybe having one of the largest diasporas internationally,” he said.
Talbot noted that there are at least 140,000 Guyanese living in New York.