Ogle Airport wants to borrow a baggage scanner from Timehri Airport

Last Updated on Sunday, 5 February 2023, 15:43 by Denis Chabrol

The Eugene F’ Correia ‘Ogle’ International Airport (EFCIA) has formally asked the Cheddi Jagan ‘Timehri’ International Airport to lend it a baggage scanner, according to Public Works Minister Juan Edghill.

“We are not sitting on our hands. There is correspondence from the Eugene F. Correia International Airport to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport of which this minister would have seen, requesting assistance  that available assets that are at Timehri be loaned to them to ensure that our national security and our architecture are adequately maintained,” he told the National Assembly.

The EFCIA is privately-run in a public-private partnership.

Guyana’s international aviation security rating is linked to international bilateral and inter-governmental inspections.

Last month, the EFCIA said its x-ray baggage scanner had been seriously affected due to frequent fluctuation of power supplied to the airport. In addition to working with the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) to address that problem, the EFCIA said it planned to buy an American-made scanner, RAPISCAN, to replace the one made in China for which spares are difficult to acquire due to supply chain problems.

EFCIA  said while those arrangements were being finalised, “passenger baggage and cargo are subject to 100% visual inspection, actually preferred by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), ensuring that security is not compromised though, admittedly, time consuming. ”

Police and Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) agents have in the past intercepted passengers to Caribbean destinations with cocaine in their possession.