Guyana/Ghana ink agreement for direct flights… Int’l Aviation Body commits to bridging Africa and the Caribbean

Nov 24, 2018 News

The governments of Guyana and Ghana have acceded to a major agreement for the facilitation of direct flights between the two countries. The Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson, and Minister of Aviation, Ghana, Joseph Kofi Adda, signed agreements on behalf of their respective governments to initiate the air link.
Minister Ferguson said, “With this agreement, the benefit to be derived is that we should be able to see a shorter travel time for passengers from the Caribbean, particularly Guyana to Africa.”
Ferguson had said on the first day of the conference, that she intends for their cooperation to shorten travel time between the regions from three days to five hours. The distance between Guyana and Ghana is 4000 miles.
Former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, had marketed the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) as a necessary action to make Guyana the hub between Africa and the South American and Caribbean regions.

Ministers Adda and Ferguson of Ghana and Guyana

The airport renovation required a loan from China Export-Import Bank of US$138M to pay Chinese contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC). At the time, the intention was to allow for longer runways, a two-storey terminal building, passenger loading bridges, more check-in counters, concession spaces and a larger apron to park planes. Since then, the plan has undergone dramatic variations.
Bridging Africa and the Caribbean
Officials and representatives of the states, territories, regional and international organisations, participating in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Air Transport meeting, yesterday, signed on to an international agreement dubbed the Georgetown Declaration on Sustainable Air Transport Development.
The declaration builds on meetings and agreements from previous international aviation meetings, with the intention of promoting connectivity and sustainable air transport between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the African Union (AU).
They intend to work on the active pursuit of the continuous liberalisation of international air transport to the benefit of all stakeholders and the economy at large, of their respective nation. The agreement intends for the continued support of the growth of air cargo services and work on removing regulatory and operational constraints to allow for more operational flexibility and cost-effective air cargo services on regional and global bases.
The concluded meeting influenced that the movement must establish good, regulatory practices and governance for air transport, including the modernisation, harmonisation and convergence of regulatory approaches and regimes of states, and the promotion of connectivity, competition, transparency and choice for consumers.
ICAO has pledged to pursue the coordinated development of air transport and tourism through harmonised air transport and tourism policies, bearing in mind, the risk associated with overdependence on international tourism.
They will work on the planning and development of efforts for aviation, tourism and trade infrastructure in an appropriately balanced development of transport modes including multimodal and urban planning activities.
The group has pledged the support of the development of national and/or regional aviation infrastructure programmes and plans with strategic infrastructure targets that are consistent with ICAO’s global plans and according to national and regional needs.
The declaration mentions the encouragement of financial institutions to alleviate constraints on financing development for the aviation sector including quality infrastructure investments and the continuation of the cooperation and collaboration on enhancing air connectivity to support the development and growth of tourism and trade.
It also mentions the enhancement of the regional cooperation in aviation safety and security through strengthening support mechanisms such as the Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Organisation (CASSOS) to ensure compliance with ICAO global standards in order to further reap the socio-economic benefits of aviation.
The agreement mentions that acceding entities will support the cooperation between the African Union and CARICOM in developing and implementing a plan of action on the establishment of air links, tourism, trade and investment in line with the African Union ‘Declaration of the Global African Diaspora Summit’.