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The
Guyana Express
What’s
the quickest way to get from Little Guyana, Queens to Guyana, South
America? Since Dec. 13,
probably a cheap flight on the city’s only immigrant-owned air carrier,
Universal Airlines.
Universal, which made its maiden flight two months ago, was started by two
Guyanese-American sisters, Chandramatie Harpaul and Ramashree Singh, with
the help of Guyanese investors.
The airline, based in Richmond Hill, Queens, offers four flights a week to
Georgetown, Guyana, and two to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
All flights leave Kennedy Airport at midnight so Guyanese
immigrants don’t have to miss an extra day of work to fly home.
“You
work, you pack up, and you leave,” said Vishnu Mahadeo, a volunteer
worker for Universal.
The
airline’s sole plane, a 243-seat Boeing 767, belongs to Polish airline
LOT and is leased by Universal. The
crew is still Polish, but the flight attendants are Guyanese, and the food
is pure Caribbean--cook-up rice, chicken curry and plaintains.
Universal’s
tickets cost about 30 percent less than big airlines charge.
A weekday roundtrip fare to Guyana is currently $400 on Universal
and $660 on British West
Indies Airlines (BWIA).
Passengers
save money on baggage allowances too--an important factor for Guyanese
lugging home computers, cell phones, and clothes for poorer relatives.
BWIA
airlines allows a maximum of 140
pounds of luggage per passenger.
Universal, on the other hand, is authorized to carry cargo,
Guyanese and American postal service letters, and 170 pounds worth of
suitcases per person. And
Universal promises the luggage won’t get lost, Mahadeo said.
