> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Guyana Wants a Partner to Train Its Pilots. It Has Budgeted G$100 Million and Named Nobody. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-aviation-centre-of-excellence-partner-bvi-runway-bids-2026/ - Published: 2026-10-03T12:53:14.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-06T21:30:46.000Z - Description: President Ali and Minister Indar said on 30 September that Guyana is seeking an international partner to build and operate an Aviation Centre of Excellence. The 2026 Budget carries G$100 million, about US$480,000. No partner has been named, and no airline for Terminal Two. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Aviation, Guyana, British Virgin Islands, Analysis **Quick summary:** President Irfaan Ali and Minister Deodat Indar said on 30 September that Guyana is seeking an international partner to build and operate an Aviation Centre of Excellence. The 2026 National Budget carries G$100 million, about US$480,000, to start it. No partner has been named. It is the second aviation announcement in a week without a counterparty. By LCN Business Desk "We need pilots; we don't have enough," Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar told the Department of Public Information. "We are going to create our own professionals right here. We are working with different partners to come to help us build out and operate." The facility he was describing, an Aviation Centre of Excellence, would train pilots and the engineers who maintain aircraft engines, propellers and airframes. President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali set out the ambition in wider terms on 30 September, saying Guyana wants to be a human resource training and development hub for aviation globally, covering every aspect of the industry, and that the Government is [looking for an international partner](https://kaieteurnewsonline.com/2026/09/30/pres-ali-seeks-global-partner-to-make-guyana-aviation-training-hub/?ref=lacaribenanews.com) to work with. The 2026 National Budget carries **$100 million** to start it. Guyana states its budget in Guyanese dollars, so at the Bank of Guyana's rate of about G$208.50 to the United States dollar, that is roughly **US$480,000**. ## What is actually being sought? A partner, and the Government has been explicit that it does not have one. The money is described in the [announcement](https://www.einpresswire.com/article/946813989/government-seeks-partner-to-develop-aviation-centre-of-excellence-min-indar?ref=lacaribenanews.com) as a sum to kickstart the initiative, not to build the thing. The partner is to help "build out and operate" it, and to ensure the institution meets recognised standards. No candidate organisation has been named, no country has been named, and no timeline has been given for selecting one or for opening the centre. What the centre would teach is more specific than the search for who would run it. Pilot training is one half. The other is airframe and powerplant maintenance, the licensed trade that keeps aircraft airworthy, and the one a country needs if it intends to service aircraft rather than only fly them. ## How far does G$100 million go? It is a start-up line, and the Government says so. The Government has not published a total cost for the centre, a phasing plan, or what share it expects a partner to fund. What it has published is a line in the estimates and a description of that line as money to kickstart an initiative whose build and operation a partner is expected to carry. A budget line is the thing a prospective partner can point to, and it is also the measure of how much of this is currently Guyana's own money. That money reaches the budget from oil, through the Natural Resource Fund, which has [paid in US$10.5 billion since 2020](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-billionth-barrel-nrf-receipts-article-32-stability-2026/), on projections resting on a resource estimate [whose four owners each state a different figure](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-oil-reserves-stabroek-11-billion-barrels-estimates-differ-2026/). On the public record this newspaper can find, that is about US$480,000 against an ambition the President described as global. ## Is this the same gap as the Terminal Two deal? It is the second announcement in a week to arrive without the other party. On 30 September La Caribeña News reported that the Government was ready to finalise a deal for a major airline to use Cheddi Jagan International Airport as a global hub, and that [no airline had been named](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/cjia-terminal-2-hub-deal-benchmarks-airline-incentives-2026/). Minister Indar has been courting carriers: LATAM and Arajet have both been reported as approached as the market expands. None has been announced as signed. So within one week Guyana has published a terminal looking for an airline and a training centre looking for an operator. The aviation ambition is stated, the budget lines are real, and in both cases the counterparty is the part that is still outstanding. This is the ordinary shape of development announcements, and it is also the reason the announcements cannot yet be read as capacity. ## What does the constraint look like when a government states it? In the British Virgin Islands, it looks like a borrowing limit. The British Virgin Islands opened tenders on 30 September for the first phase of expanding Terrance B Lettsome International Airport. Communications and Works Minister Kye Rymer said [two bids were received](https://bvinews.com/two-bids-received-for-first-phase-of-airport-expansion/?ref=lacaribenanews.com) for a 787-foot extension at the western end of the runway. He did not identify the bidders and did not disclose the value of their proposals. An evaluation team will assess the submissions, and no construction timeline was given. The wider expansion has been held up for years, and the reason is on the record. Financing and borrowing limits have been under discussion between the territory's government and the United Kingdom, and in February Premier Natalio Wheatley said the proposed borrowing would exceed the territory's debt ratios and that the Government was awaiting United Kingdom approval. Both governments are short of the same thing and name it differently. The British Virgin Islands is waiting on a lender's permission, which is a constraint with an address. Guyana is waiting on a partner who has not been identified, which is a constraint without one. A borrowing ceiling set in London is not the only fiscal limit in the region being set outside it. Five Eastern Caribbean states have been [asked by the European Commission to close the citizenship programmes](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/argentina-golden-passport-caribbean-citizenship-investment-eu-2028-deadline-2026/) that fund about five per cent of their GDP. ### What the title card shows G$100 million: the sum in Guyana's 2026 National Budget to start the Aviation Centre of Excellence, described by the Government as money to kickstart the initiative. About US$480,000: that sum converted at approximately G$208.50 to the United States dollar, the rate implied by the Bank of Guyana's own Natural Resource Fund reporting. Zero: partners named for the centre, and airlines named for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Terminal Two hub deal. Pilots, engines, propellers and airframes: what the centre is to train, per the Department of Public Information. 787 feet: the runway extension at Terrance B Lettsome International Airport in the British Virgin Islands that went to tender on 30 September 2026\. Two: bids received, with neither the bidders nor the values disclosed by Communications and Works Minister Kye Rymer. 30 September 2026: the date of both the Guyanese announcement and the British Virgin Islands tender opening. ## Frequently Asked Questions What is the Aviation Centre of Excellence? A proposed facility to train pilots and aviation engineers in Guyana, covering aircraft engines, propellers and airframes. President Irfaan Ali and Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar described it on 30 September 2026\. The Government is seeking an international partner to build and operate it. How much has Guyana committed to it? G$100 million in the 2026 National Budget, which the Government describes as a sum to kickstart the initiative. At about G$208.50 to the United States dollar that is roughly US$480,000\. The build and operation are expected to be carried by a partner who has not been named. Has a partner been chosen? No. No organisation and no country has been named, and no timeline has been given for selecting one. How does this relate to the Terminal Two hub deal? They are separate announcements a week apart, and both are missing a counterparty. The Government said it was ready to finalise a deal for a major airline to use Cheddi Jagan International Airport as a global hub without naming the airline, and it is now seeking an unnamed partner for the training centre. What is happening at the British Virgin Islands airport? Tenders opened on 30 September 2026 for a 787-foot runway extension at Terrance B Lettsome International Airport, the first phase of a wider expansion. Two bids were received. The bidders and the values were not disclosed. The wider project has awaited United Kingdom approval because the proposed borrowing would exceed the territory's debt ratios. ### Disclosure Theon Alleyne, the proprietor of La Caribeña News, is a director of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association and chairs its Services Sub-Sector, which covers the Guyanese services firms a national aviation training centre would draw on.