By Ray Chickrie From Caribbean News Now

WASHINGTON, USA — A report commissioned by the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) concluded that Guyana and Suriname will not in the near future become air hubs in the region.

The report by Andy Ricover, titled Constraints to Regional Air Connectivity between countries of the Guyana Shield and South America”, which was released in November 2015, added that the respective governments of those countries should therefore actively engage in negotiations to connect Guyana and Suriname with major South American hubs in Colombia, Brazil and Panama.

The Guyanas will not become hubs anytime soon and poor infrastructure and services don’t help. Guyana’s Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) is currently being expanded and modernized but that won’t make much of a difference because neither Guyana nor Suriname have the “volume of origin and destination (O&D) traffic”. But this could all change if the tourism industry takes off in either one or both of these countries.

As a result of low O&D passenger traffic, “in terms of operational facilities, the current state of the infrastructure of Georgetown and Paramaribo international airports present no operational constraints. Both terminal buildings, at Paramaribo and at Georgetown, offer a relatively low level of service to passengers,” the report asserts.

The report claims that both Suriname’s Johan Pengel and Guyana’s Cheddi Jagan airports, “even without proper measurement of the buildings, the dimensions and appearance of the facilities are not up to the international accepted levels of service”. It added that “all areas related to passenger processing areas, particularly for outbound passengers, present deficient conditions of facilitation, comfort and acceptable level of service”.

Both airports in Guyana and Suriname are expensive for passengers and airlines. The report claims that Paramaribo and Georgetown airports are the seventh and eighth most expensive airports of a sample of airports in South America. Paramaribo has a total cost per passenger of US$14,331 (14.0% above the sample average of US$12,574), while Georgetown has a total cost of US$13,032 (3.6% above the sample average).

Guyana on the other hand is served by COPA of Panama and that service, which started with a twice weekly frequency, has now been doubled to four. Hence, Guyana is now connected to a major hub that links it with COPA’s fast-growing Latin America, Europe and North America networks.

And soon, Guyana will also be linked with Dubai and Istanbul when Emirates and COPA flesh out some hiccups in their planned alliance through code-share. Another global giant, Turkish Airlines, will also commence service to Panama and Bogotá, which will lead to seamless travel out of Guyana to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Dubai and Istanbul are two world class hubs.

Suriname lags behind; it lacks connectivity to any major hubs in the region. The report calls for Suriname to establish new services to Panama, either as a non-stop service or as a continuation of the four weekly service between Panama and Guyana. It would be more attractive to COPA if it was allow traffic rights between Paramaribo and Georgetown. This is why it’s pivotal for Guyana and Suriname to seek the most liberal air agreements with the global community.

“Such an opportunity would increase the regional connectivity of PBM by offering more connections in the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe through the PTY hub.”

COPA officials were in Suriname holding discussions with the government and Surinam Airways (SLM) over a year ago. So far, nothing has been made public about these discussions. Recently GOL Airlines of Brazil commenced twice weekly service from Belem to Paramaribo. However, Belem is not a hub and eventually it costs a lot to reach hubs like Rio and Brasilia.

The report was also critical of the “inefficient” conditions at the Port of Spain’s Piarco Airport in Trinidad, and for that reason urged Guyana and Suriname to seek other regional hubs. The Port of Spain airport is “operating under extremely inefficient conditions, limiting the possibility of developing a successful hub. Inter-airline connecting passengers may require over 150 minutes to connect to clear immigration and security. And while passengers arriving and connecting with Caribbean Airlines may be able to connect within the transit area, they still confront delays of over 45 minutes to clear security,” says the report.

Guyana and Suriname have no direct connection to Bogotá, one of South America’s largest hubs. The report urges the governments of these countries to negotiate with Avianca airline of Colombia to expand its network to the Guyanas.

“Developing a connection through Avianca with Bogotá El Dorado International Airport would bolster the connectivity of Guyana and Suriname, as this airline has direct nonstop services to 29 international destinations in North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Europe.”

The IDB report also calls for Guyana and Suriname to renegotiate restrictive bilateral air agreements they have with Brazil and Colombia, and to conclude more air services agreement with their South American neighbours. Guyana has no air services agreement with Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay or Ecuador, while Suriname has no air services agreement with Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay, according to the report.

IMAGE: Artist’s impression of the planned new Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana

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