Guyana and Greece signed an Air Services Agreement on Wednesday, September 30, setting the terms under which airlines of each country may operate to the other. Guyana’s Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, Deodat Indar, put his name to the agreement for the government.Greece’s ambassador to Guyana, Theodore N. Tsakiris, signed on behalf of the Hellenic Republic. 

The signing took place at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on the sidelines of the third Global Regional Safety Oversight Organisations and Regional Accidents and Incidents Investigation Organisation Forum for Aviation Safety. The forum was organised jointly by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. Details of the agreement were issued in a press release.

The text is considerably older than the ceremony. Technical negotiations were completed and the agreement was initialled in Aqaba, Jordan, on December 3, 2019. That date falls within the twelfth ICAO Air Services Negotiation Event, held in Aqaba from December 2 to 6, which ICAO describes as a central meeting place where states conduct bilateral air services negotiations. Initialling confirms the agreed wording and precedes formal signature, which here followed almost seven years later. The official account of Wednesday's event gives no reason for the interval.

The agreement contains provisions that are standard for treaties of this kind. These cover the grant of rights to airlines, their designation and authorisation, the laws and regulations that apply to them, tariffs and user charges. Commercial opportunities and the recognition of certificates and licences are also included, as are aviation safety and security. Tariff provisions govern the fares airlines may charge, and recognition clauses mean each country accepts the certificates and licences issued by the other.

Guyana and Greece are not currently linked by any direct flight. The agreement is intended to give airlines access to both markets, and the official statement says it will promote competitive air transport services and support trade and economic development in both countries. These are the stated aims of the agreement, and no results can yet be reported. Until an airline applies for and is granted rights, the agreement creates permission for flights without any service being scheduled. The statement does not set out which routes or how many flights would be permitted, or which airlines might be designated. It also does not say whether the agreement has entered into force or must first be ratified.

Signature and entry into force are separate steps in the life of such agreements. Greece's air services agreement with India, signed on November 27, 2017, took effect on May 11, 2022, a gap of more than four years, according to the Greek Official Gazette, which published notice of it that August. Agreements of this kind usually enter into force once both governments have completed their internal approval procedures. They then set a legal framework, and airlines decide whether a route is commercially viable.

Wednesday's signing adds to an existing network of such agreements. When Guyana signed an open skies agreement with Rwanda in Montreal in September 2025, at the 42nd ICAO Assembly, Mr Indar said in a statement that it complemented more than 50 air services agreements Guyana had established with other ICAO member states. That agreement contained standard articles of the same kind as those in the Greek text. The statement said both parties wanted it to create opportunities for their airlines to expand air connectivity, and Mr Indar said it brought closer Guyana's aim of becoming an international hub for air connectivity.

Guyana and Greece established diplomatic relations on May 14, 1979, more than 47 years before the agreement was signed.

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