CJIA expansion…GCAA training staff to handle increased traffic  

GINA, GUYANA, Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Guyana is preparing to address the influx of air traffic with the expansion of the main port-of-entry, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri.

The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is hosting a three -day course on Airport and Air Navigation Service Provider Principles of Economics Regulation for staff to better service the sector.

Retired lieutenant Colonel Egbert Field, Director General of the GCAA explained that the expansion of the airport will see more aircraft flying in, more frequently, which will result in an increase in tourism and combined with the oil industry, an increase in travelling.

The GCAA Director General was addressing participating regulators, airport operators and air navigation service providers from CJIA, Eugene F. Correira Airport, Air Services Limited, Trans Guyana Airways and Roraima Airways among others, today at the GCAA headquarters in Kingston.

Field, in highlighting the content and scope of the course, explained to the participants that the sessions will enable them to learn how to calculate the cost of capital for infrastructure and set efficient targets.  He said, “You’ll be covering competition and economic regulation forms of control, (and) cost of capital.”

Field encouraged the participants to absorb what was being taught. “You’re from the various industries or from the various entities, it will be very important to this movement forward in our economy,” he said.

The course is being conducted by the United Kingdom OXERA Consultancy company, which works with companies and governments around the world on economic issues connected with competition, finance, regulation and litigation.

Facilitator of the training, Andrew Meaney from OXERA Consultancy explained that the training provided will bring international best practices in economic regulations. “We feel that aviation is really important economically, and can drive the economy, and an economic regulation is at the core of that,” Meaney explained.

Therefore, making sure that airports build and develop and improve the necessary international connections, one needs to ensure that the appropriate fees are charged, Meaney said.

“People like you and me don’t want to pay a high air fare so economic relation is really about that balance between what the airports need to develop and build, a strong economy, and what you and I need as we use aviation to travel,” Meaney pointed out.

Economic regulation and the economics of air transport is part of the GCAA’s initiatives to boost operations within the aviation sector.