Technical problems caused Dynamic Airways’ Christmas delays

Last Updated on Sunday, 4 January 2015, 1:00 by GxMedia

Guyana government aviation officials have said that Dynamic Airways’ recent flight delays and a cancellation during the Christmas peak season were due to technical problems with one of its planes.

“They had a similar problem, as they had prior to this one with the navigational computer being burnt again so because of that they are going to re-position another aircraft to do the flight on Saturday,” said Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Zulficar Mohamed.

The carrier flew out an estimated 200 passengers at 5:30 PM Saturday- its scheduled departure- from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) to New York.

Mohamed explained that Dynamic Airways’ plane is a registered aircraft that is being operated under an American Air Operators Certificate which mandates the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to oversee the entire maintenance programme. “Any issues like these, once there is a repair job done on the aircraft, it has to be approved and certified by the FAA so it goes through the FAA’s oversight programme and process,” he told Caribbean News Desk.

Top officials of the charter service are expected to hold a news conference at the CJIA Sunday afternoon, just days after New York-based Guyanese and his brother filed legal action in a Federal Court against the company.  Citing long delays and one cancellation, Moses and Rohan Rambarran say at a minimum they want full refunds of their airfares.

Transport Minister, Robeson Benn said Guyanese authorities were satisfied that the explanations given for the burn-out of the navigational computers “are accurate.”  “We have not had any information with respect to other factors,” he said when asked whether government believed that there were other reasons for the delays and cancellation.

Benn explained that there might have been a problem with the interface between the ground power units and the plane that resulted in the navigation systems being burnt.

Quizzed on a claim that no pilot had been available to fly a plane that had been already boarded at the John F. Kennedy International Airport, he said that due to the time it had taken to resolve the navigational aid problem, the pilots could have no longer flown because they had exceeded the number of hours that had been awake. “The pilots were timed out so you just can’t go and fly because the plane is ready. It has to relate to the time you are on and your energy levels,” he said.

Dynamic Airways’ ground handling and general sales agent representative is Roraima Airways.

Chief Executive Officer of the Roraima Group of Companies, Gerry Gouveia said about 150 persons “did not get to visit Guyana  for Christmas because and only because Dynamic Airways will always put safety above anything else.”

He said the airline has  flown more than 2,000 persons to Guyana during Christmas 2014 and was “in the process of returning them safely to their homes in the USA.” Gouveia apologized for the inconvenience experienced by the passengers. “Sorry for causing any inconvenience but safety will always be the number one priority for Dynamic Airways. Dynamic Airways remains committed to serving Guyana and promise to work harder every day to continuously   improve our level of service to our passengers,” he said.

‘Dynamic has been plagued with problems ever since its inaugural flight earlier this year when both departures from Guyana and the US had been delayed due to administrative and regulatory problems mainly in New York.