By Shenecka Paul | HGP Nightly News |
LILIENDAAL, GREATER GEORGETOWN — Guyana etched its name in regional civil aviation annals on Monday, becoming the first Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state to host the Global Regional Safety Forum for Aviation.
The high-level, three-day summit convened at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) in Liliendaal, bringing together global aviation specialists, statutory civil aviation directors, accident investigation bodies, and multinational industry executives. Organized jointly by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the assembly unites the Third Global Regional Safety Oversight Organization (RSOO) and the Regional Accident Investigation Organization (RAIO) forums under a single deliberative umbrella.
Conducted under the banner “Optimizing Resources through Coordination and Cooperation,” the multilateral forum is engineered to pool technical expertise, harmonize regulatory flight-safety mechanisms, and consolidate cross-border data architectures to navigate the logistical demands of safeguarding international airspace.
Keynote Focus: President Ali Champions an Aviation AI Strategy
Delivering the forum’s opening address, President Dr. Irfaan Ali asserted that regional integration is the primary vehicle to construct resilient, modern air transport infrastructure, declaring that operational safety standards must never be compromised amid market expansion:
- Artificial Intelligence Roadmap: President Ali challenged delegates to formulate a proactive artificial intelligence (AI) doctrine, emphasizing that next-generation predictive algorithms must be deployed to manage airspace tracking, automated safety inspections, and cross-jurisdictional compliance.
- Passenger Expansion: The Head of State noted that national investments in expanding domestic airstrips, modernizing the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), and developing secondary air hubs are directly yielding historic air passenger arrivals.
“Your agenda must be able to lead your discussions towards an AI strategy for the aviation sector as it relates to safety regulations, adaptability, equity and integration,” President Ali urged global aviation delegates.
Industry Partnerships and Guyana’s Million-Passenger Milestone
Addressing the assembly, Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar underlined that technical solidarity and bilateral capacity transfers are vital to translating ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) into domestic operational realities:
“We have to make sure that we work together, we learn from each other, advise each other. That is what this is about—building partnerships, working together, understanding what is required from ICAO and how to implement them in a country,” Minister Indar remarked.
Providing an institutional performance assessment, Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Lt. Col. (Ret’d) Egbert Field, documented the rapid trajectory of Guyana’s civil airspace since 2020:
- Quadrupled Operations: The volume of active air operators has quadrupled over the last six years, driving matching exponential increases across both commercial passenger carriage and heavy air-cargo logistics.
- Surpassing One Million Travelers: Total passenger movements in and out of the country have officially exceeded the one million mark—a benchmark Field framed as an exceptional operational achievement for a nation of fewer than 800,000 citizens.
“Since 2020, the number [of] air operators have grown, it has quadrupled in both passenger carriage and also cargo. Passenger movement have surpassed a million, and for a small country like Guyana with less than a million people, to have passenger movement over a million is something—should be an achievement we should applaud,” Director General Field stated.
Navigating the Multi-Day Agenda
The forum’s technical sessions are structured to address structural and commercial vulnerabilities across regional oversight:
- Day One Deliberations: Focused on legislative amendments, joint accident investigations, and delegating statutory oversight tasks across adjacent sovereign air boundaries.
- Day Two Deliberations: Dedicated to the economics of civil aviation safety, analyzing mechanisms to secure sustainable capital funding for regional safety networks and tackling brain-drain by retaining skilled aviation mechanics, avionics engineers, and certified air-traffic controllers.
- Summative Outcomes: Summit organizers and local stakeholders affirmed that hosting the international forum cements Guyana’s strategic positioning as a rising hub connecting South American flight paths with Caribbean and transatlantic corridors.
