GCAA to train hinterland residents in aviation

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Jan. 9, CMC – The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA)  says as part of the authority’s projections for this year, it will be training a minimum of 20 persons from the hinterland as air traffic controllers.
According to GCAA Director General Lieutenant Colonel (retd.), Egbert Field,residents from the 10  Administrative Regions in the country will benefit from this training exercise.
Field explained that the air traffic control programme will commence by April of this year.
“A new course will start and we will be targeting some of the outlying regions when it comes to applicants for the training course.”
Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan in his 2018 budget speech announced that the government is in negotiation with a multilateral donor to secure a US$15M loan, to finance a project under which the Lethem airstrip will be upgraded into a regional hub and international aerodrome.
Field said, with this venture coming on stream, the authority will be training new air traffic controllers in order to address the current shortfall and have an adequate number of officers in place.
“At the moment our capacity doesn’t allow us to do inspections, so this will assist us in not only relieving the shortage which we suffer from right now but also assist in the movement of aircraft in the Lethem region.”
The Director-General emphasised that as the aviation sector prepares to enter a new phase, the authority is ensuring that hinterland communities are not left out.
Last July, Guyana’s Civil Aviation Training School (CATS) received its accreditation enabling it to offer courses approved and recognised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
With enhanced equipment and the new state of the art three-dimensional simulator, it is also the aim of the GCAA to conduct several courses this year.
As a result, the Authority is in the process of enhancing and upgrading all the facilities in the school so that they can satisfy the training requirements.
Field says that the course which will start in April will be the first for this year and in the last half of the year another course will be done.
“We’re in the process of shortlisting students to undertake the course. At the same time we’re running introductory courses we’re also upgrading our air traffic controllers in air control and other courses they need to do.”
Formerly known as the Guyana Air Traffic Services Training School and more recently as the Air Navigation Services Training School, CAATS, was originally established in 1979.