Guyana considering new airline to compete with Caribbean Airlines

As Trinidad and Tobago gets ready to take charge of Air Jamaica on April 12, Guyana is talking about getting back into the airline business.

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Speaking at the opening of three businesses at the country's Cheddi Jagan International Airport, President Bharrat Jagdeo said Guyana is concerned about the high and increasing cost of travel to and from Guyana and its regional neighbours.

The former state-owned airline, Guyana Airways, operated services throughout the Caribbean, the U.S. and Canada from 1973 to 2001, when it went bankrupt and closed.

At one time it was the only profitable carrier in the English-speaking Caribbean. Its successor, Guyana Air 2000, also went bankrupt.

Jagdeo said having a national carrier once again is under consideration to break the monopoly held by the Trinidad and Tobago's Caribbean Airlines (CAL).

“This unconscionable monopoly on increase in fare, particularly by Caribbean Airlines, where you pay sometimes more to travel from Guyana to Trinidad and Tobago than people pay from Trinidad and Tobago to get into the U.S. simply is not sustainable,” he said.

“If the argument by Caribbean Airlines and the others is that they have to charge lower fares from Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados into North America because they have competition there then we can operate a shuttle to these two countries so that our people can have cheaper fares there too,” Jagdeo added.