Guyana Air Traffic Controllers Strike Rules Out Night Flights at CJIA

Strike action by air traffic controllers at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) in Guyana over the past four days has forced the administration of the facility to cut night flights.

Guyana Civil Aviation Director Chief Zulfikar Mohamed says the airport is being closed at 6 pm to relieve the senior managers who are directing air traffic.

Up to midnight Monday, the entire airport was shut down because there was no controller to manage the system. Flights arriving at the airport in the evenings are now rescheduled to touch down during the morning hours.

At present, a foreign plane that is currently in Guyana to conduct flight checks, in order to certify the VOR, is grounded at the airport, as a result of engineers joining their colleagues on strike.

There is no one at the control tower in the evenings to address any emergency situation affecting flights that might be in Guyana ’s airspace; and in the event that flights experience difficulties outside of Guyana’s airspace that may force them to make an emergency landing, they will have to seek out either Trinidad or Suriname. If they are unable to so do, they could be in dire straits.

All air traffic controllers have been off the job since Friday, having served notice that they were protesting a number of outstanding issues, among which are salary increases for 2008 and outstanding payment of retroactive overtime reimbursements.

The strike began Friday night over union demands for salary increases of 5 percent. The government says it cannot grant the pay hikes because it needs to upgrade airport safety equipment.

The new airport schedule has forced Trinidad-based Caribbean Airlines to cancel flights in and out of Guyana.