Guyana: Night flights resume at Cheddi Jagan Intl Airport after runway repairs

Guyana: The flights at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) are all set to resume during the nights after repairs were completed to the runway lighting system which was damaged due to intense rainfall, thunderstorms and lightning strikes.

As a result, the airport runway lighting became inoperable. The runway is equipped with two independent circuits, each of which can facilitate aircraft landings. Both of the primary and alternate circuits were impacted during the storm, and as a result, all incoming flights were diverted,including American Airlines and JetBlue.

As the authorities worked consistently to repair the area, they were finally able to resolve the problem within 24 hours with the reinstation of one circuit of the runway, making the airport operational for night flights.

On Monday morning, the affected flights were returning to the airport. These flights included American Airlines, JetBlue and Copa.

Meanwhile, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport has since successfully reinstated one circuit of the runway lights, enabling night flight operations.

The Ministry of Public Works of Guyana stated that it has notified the airlines about the same, and some flights are set to resume their services immediately. It further noted that efforts are still going on by the maintenance team to restore the second circuit which was hindered by the continuous flow of flights that were redirected yesterday.

At present, the airport has accommodated ten flights which comprised of a private aircraft, a cargo plane and also eight passenger flights. After the repairs were done and the airport became operational, several flights were scheduled to land on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, the airport authorities extended their gratitude to the stakeholders and the traveling public for their support during the recent disruptions.

Also, the Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, has announced that an investigation has since been launched to determine the root cause of the airport’s malfunction.

Edgell said, “The first thing we have to do is to find out what went wrong, because we have a lightning protection system and we have two circuits in case one goes out, we have the next one, but in this case both went out. We have to develop measures to prevent that from reoccurring.”

He also said the investigations would shed some light on future preventative measures.