[www.inewsguyana.com] – The Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) has finally broken its silence on the private hangar located at the Airport for the private Jet services of alleged smuggler, Khamraj Lall.
Lall, the owner of the Jet was arrested last week in Puerto Rico with over US$620,000 hidden inside.
According to a joint statement by the CJIA and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCCA), in August 2010, Lall expressed an interest in developing a hangar for his aircraft service and in December of the following year, the management of the CJIA received an application for land to construct a hanger to facilitate his aircraft operations.
In October 2012, Cabinet approved a lease to allow for the construction of the hangar, which to date is not completed, the CJIA said.
On the legality of its operations, GCAA confirmed that Exec Jet Club LLC is not a Club but rather a Limited Liability Company.
It was noted that the company was never granted a blanket approval to operate into Guyana; rather approval was granted by GCAA on a per flight basis.
According to the CJIA, Exec Jet is authorised to conduct on demand flights for compensation under 4 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 135 by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“The company operates two (2) Westwind 1 Jets under Air Carrier Certificate #R6QA548L, and is authorised to operate into South America among other geographic regions such as Central America and Mexico.
“Therefore, all of the flights operated into and out of Guyana by Exec Jet are legal and the company is duly authorised to conduct such flights by competent aeronautical authorities.”
The Airport management made it clear that all of Exec Jet Club’s flights must adhere to CJIA’s established standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all flights into and out of Guyana.
“These procedures require that the flights be processed on the International Apron and must be cleared by Customs, Immigrations, CANU and other Law Enforcement Agencies. Checks with Senior Representatives of these agencies have confirmed that their SOPs were followed in every instance for all of Exec Jet Club flights.
“Additionally, at no time was any instruction given to the staff to waive the airport security procedures with regards to Exec Jet Club’s staff ingress and egress at the airport. The CJIA’s Security supervisors have verified that at all times these checks were carried out as is customary for all operators accessing the restricted areas at the airport.”
