In an effort to address the high costs of air travel to the hinterland regions, the Government has announced that it is currently looking at the possibility of a state-run air service operating in the hinterland communities.

Speaking this afternoon at the National Toshaos Conference, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo admitted that air travel to the hinterland communities is unfair, and needs to be addressed.

He said many of the companies operating air services to the hinterland communities have been unfairly hiking their prices, which has been driving up costs for the movement of goods and people into those communities.

Mr. Jagdeo said if the trend continues, the government will look to administer the service through the Guyana Defence Force.

“It seems as though before every NTC, these aircraft operators raise their rates, it seems that they just wait before the NTC to raise their rates again, so we have had come discussions with them and if they can’t be reasonable about these rates then the government will invest in a commercial arm of the GDF to compete with them so that we can keep the freight rates down,” the Vice President noted.

According to the Vice President, the Government will be closely monitoring the situation, and will possibly look at expanding the GDF’s fleet to accommodate commercial air travel to the hinterland areas.

Jagdeo said many of the operators have reported that the high costs to move goods is sometimes due to middle men chartering the aircraft and operating the service in order to make a profit.

“So, I want to discuss with the Toshaos whether some of the villages can’t charter the planes too instead of the big businessmen, and then arrange for the people who are using the villages to get the lower freight rate that is a big concern of ours, because we on the coast have sought to tackle cost of living by subsiding electricity and water and transportation,” Mr. Jagdeo noted.

The Vice President acknowledged that some of the villages may pose a challenge for the service because of their remoteness, but noted that Government has also started to upgrade roads and bridges in those communities and will now move to upgrade airstrips in other communities to facilitate  air service.

“We plan to also upgrade and expand a lot of these airstrips so that bigger aircraft can go especially in areas they can’t go, especially in the areas they can’t go, we are going to have a government run service if we can’t solve this problem, of the gouging of the market” the Vice President said.

The cost of air travel to the hinterland communities has been an issue that many residents have complained about for several years.

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