The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) between December 10-14, 2018, attended the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Air Services Negotiation (ICAN) event, which was hosted in Nairobi, Kenya, by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.
The annual ICAN event, in which seventy-one ICAO contracting States participated, specifically provides a gathering of these member States so as to conduct multiple bilateral and plurilateral air services negotiations, consultations and networking opportunities.
The Guyanese group comprised of Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, Col (Ret’d) Egbert Field, and Director for Air Transport Management, Saheed Sulaman. They would have conducted twenty-six meetings at ICAN.
As a result of these meetings, Guyana signed sixteen Air Services Agreements (ASAs) with states including Luxembourg, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, United Kingdom and Mozambique, among others.
Additionally, Guyana also signed a Code Sharing Agreement with Australia and a Technical Cooperation Agreement with Ghana for the exchange of knowledge and technical expertise in the area of civil aviation.
These negotiations are aimed at setting the framework for expansion in air connectivity of Guyana with the rest of the world and aid to Guyana’s efforts in becoming a strong international air traffic hub.
While these agreements were initialled and memoranda of understanding were signed with these countries, signatures at the Ministerial level are still pending. Moreover, airlines from other countries can commence flights to Guyana at any time provided that the airlines are operating by the conditions outlined in the ASAs.
Negotiation of these agreements is complementary to the work started at the ICAO Air Transport Meeting which was held in Guyana in 2018.
