86 January 2016 - Business View Caribbean
services,” she says. In an effort to increase both safety
and security, Heeralall states that, for the first time in
its history, Guyana is going to install a state-of-the-art
aeronautical surveillance system – the first country in
the region to put it to use. “It will enhance safety; it will
enhance our search and rescue capability; it will instill
a lot more confidence in the aircraft operators and the
airline industry. Something like that will tell them that
we’re serious about aviation in Guyana,” she says.
Getting more serious about aviation is why Heeralall
also stresses how important it is for the GCAA to work
towards improving its international civil aviation com-
pliance so that it can obtain an FAA (Federal Aviation
Authority) Category 1 status. Under the International
Convention on Civil Aviation (ICCA), each country is re-
sponsible for the safety oversight of its own air carri-
ers. The United States FAA conducts the International
Aviation Safety Assessment Program (IASA), assessing
the Civil Aviation Authority of each country that has
carriers operating to the United States. Category 1
means the air carriers from the assessed state may
initiate or continue service to the United States in a
normal manner and take part in reciprocal code-share
arrangements with U.S. carriers. Currently, Guyana
cannot initiate new service and is restricted to current
levels of any existing service to the U.S., while correc-
tive actions are underway.
An important part of achieving Category 1 status is
have adequately trained and qualified technical per-
sonnel. Today, the GCAA has about 98 employees.
Heeralall explains the Authority’s training procedures:
“For air navigation services, we have a training school.
We hire persons with the required academic qualifica-
tions. We carry out their training to make sure we have
certified air traffic controllers and maintenance per-
sonnel for that area. Some of those people have been
trained in Canada, in the UK, in Trinidad & Tobago, and
in Guyana. So, for our air traffic control staff, that’s
where most of them have gotten their training; for our
other technical officers - some of them have received
training in the UK and in Guyana, and we have done a
lot of our training in Singapore, by the UK CAA and the
US FAA. We are also affiliated with the Caribbean Avia-
tion Safety and Security Oversight System (CASSOS).”
(CASSOS coordinates the sharing of the limited techni-
cal aviation expertise of the region, including training,
licensing, certification and inspection procedures; and
provides technical support to the participating States
to enable them to achieve and maintain full compli-
ance with international safety and security standards
