Guyana records 63.9% ICAO compliance

Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 May 2026, 21:24 by Writer

Guyana is taking steps to secure a higher than 63.4 percent rating in the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) most recent audit of this country, officials said Wednesday.

Though Minister of Aviation, Deodat Indar boasted that that “comfortable pass” was the highest in the Latin American (LATAM) region from the 2024 audit, Guyana’s civil aviation sector fell back on implementation of laws partly due to the enactment of legislation just prior to the audit.

“We had the Civil Aviation Act reviewed, and a lot changed and so on. But what we suffered from in the audit is post-legislation activity. So the legislation was passed very close to the audit, because we had the audit and the auditor, when they checked to see the implementation of the legislation, there was not enough meat for them to check and because of that, we got a low score in the regulatory part – implementation,” the minister said.

Mr Indar said Guyana recorded very high scores in a number of areas such as more than 90 percent in regulations and 80.14 percent in security.

Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Egbert Field, also in response to questions from Demerara Waves, added that with the change in regulations, the inspectors had been undergoing on-the-job training at the time of the audit.

Retired Lt. Col. Field said Guyana was extremely confident that the 63.4 percent score could be increased after a “corrective action plan” is completed and the ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) is called in next year to conduct an after-audit inspection.

“States hardly call for ICVM but Guyana is that confident that we will call them in to examine us, so that our score can go up,” he said.

He said he receives a status report every two weeks from the GCAA officer who has been tasked with pursuing corrective action.

The aviation minister said ICAO conducted the audit based on more than 700 questions in eight thematic areas including laws, regulations, enforcement, filing system, competence and certification.