Cheddi Jagan International Airport
| Cheddi Jagan International Airport | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | Government of Guyana | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Corporation | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Georgetown, Guyana | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Timehri | ||||||||||||||
| Hub for | Fly Guyana Airways | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 95 ft / 29 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 06°29′54″N 58°15′14″W / 6.49833°N 58.25389°WCoordinates: 06°29′54″N 58°15′14″W / 6.49833°N 58.25389°W | ||||||||||||||
| Website | www.cjairport-gy.com | ||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||
 SYCJ
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| Statistics (2016) | |||||||||||||||
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Source: DAFIF
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| Passengers | 572,439 |
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| Passenger change 15-16 |
 14% |
Cheddi Jagan International Airport (IATA: GEO, ICAO: SYCJ), formerly Timehri International Airport, is the national airport of Guyana. The airport is located on the right bank of the Demerara River in the city of Timehri, 41 kilometres (25 mi) south of Guyana's capital, Georgetown. It is the larger of the two international airports serving Georgetown the other known as the Ogle Airport
The United States obtained rights to locate military facilities in British Guiana as part of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement with the United Kingdom in 1941. On 14 June 1941, the first United States Army forces arrived to survey land for a bomber airfield near Georgetown.
Atkinson Field was built 28 miles (45 km) from Georgetown on 68 acres (28 ha) of land formerly known as Hyde Park, on the Demerara River. The forest was cleared and hills were levelled and a long concrete runway was constructed. On 20 June 1941 the airfield officially opened with the activation of a weather station. The station was named after Lieutenant Colonel Bert M. Atkinson, a United States Army Air Service World War I aviator. Colonel Atkinson was the commander of the 1st Pursuit Wing on the western front in 1918. Colonel Atkinson retired from the Army in 1922 after a distinguished career and died on 27 April 1937.
The mission of the station was the defense of the colony against German U-Boats. The airfield was also a major staging point for American aircraft crossing the Atlantic Ocean heading to the European Theatre on the South Atlantic transport route. Aircraft supplied to the British forces by the United States were flown to Atkinson where they were turned over and ferried to North Africa. With the discovery of bauxite deposits in northeast Brazil in 1943, the mission of the airfield was expanded to protect the coastline of northeast South America and prevent any submarine landings by Axis forces on the continent.
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Wikipedia