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Government grants “Fly All Ways” approval to re-enter Guyana’s air space
A Fly All Ways aircraft.
Kaieteur News – It has been revealed that “Fly All Ways,” a Suriname based airline, has recently been approved to operate flights to and from Guyana. Speaking with Kaieteur News yesterday, the Director of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Egbert Field, confirmed the approval.
He stated that the flights the airline is slated to operate will be between Paramaribo, Georgetown and Antigua; Paramaribo, Georgetown and Barbados; and Paramaribo Georgetown and Curacao.
The announcement was first made by the Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, during a press briefing on Friday at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA). He was quoted as saying, “Fly All Ways out of Suriname will be operating the Suriname route, the Barbados route and Curacao route out of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport,” in a Department of Public Information report.
The airline had been approved to operate flights in Guyana in 2016. However, its operation here was short-lived, as it pulled out in 2017. The company’s reason for leaving Guyana was that it was not receiving customer support.
Now that the airline is re-entering Guyana’s air space, its track record is concerning.
Kaieteur News had previously reported that Dilip Sarjoe, the owner of Fly All Ways, was promised lucrative concessions to make Guyana one of its hubs, according to people familiar with the development. A Curacao Chronicle report stated that sources also said that the development and the concessions granted were shrouded in secrecy and lacked transparency.
Further, to avoid the baggage of Blue Wing, its sister company, which was blacklisted by the European Union (EU), it was registered as a separate entity.
It was stated that Blue Wing has had many accidents, and has been consistently blacklisted by the EU. The company was completely banned from the EU’s skies in July 2010.
The Vice President of the European Commission, responsible for transport, Siim Kallas, had made a stern assertion on the company’s operations, saying, “We cannot afford to compromise on air safety. Where we have evidence that air carriers are not performing safe operations or where regulators fail in their obligation to enforce safety standards, we must act to guarantee safe skies for our citizens when they travel. We are ready to support those countries, which need and want to build up their technical and administrative capacity to guarantee the highest standards of safety of civil aviation. The Commission is working closely with the European Aviation Safety Agency to further strengthen its efforts in providing technical assistance.”
In 2014, Fly All Ways acquired two of KLM’s Fokker 70s to execute its planned regional routes from the Paramaribo City Airport, Zorg en Hoop and the owner had promised the government of Guyana to station one of the 80-seater Fokkers in Georgetown. It was also reported that the Fokker 70s have an average age of 20 years and they were manufactured between the years 1993 and 1997.
Nevertheless, the company has already been given the go-ahead for its flights to and from Georgetown, Guyana, but the aforementioned track record still remains worrisome.
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