As I write this editorial, I’m sitting in a hotel room near Georgetown, Guyana. Earlier today, I had the privilege to sit in on a four-hour discussion on the future of aviation in this country. The topics ranged from the difficulty of attracting large, international carriers to Guyana; to the infrastructure needed to develop the country’s remote interior; to tourism; to search and rescue; to calls for a national aviation plan; to safety; to achieving U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Category 1 status; to compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization standards and recommended practices.
What most impressed me was not the scope of the discussion in what was described as a “national discourse” with stakeholders, or the passion with which issues were discussed, but the breadth and diversity of the stakeholders who took part. The event featured four government ministers, including one of the country’s vice presidents, the acting director general of the Guyana Civi…
