Guyanese passengers stranded
-- Rohee intervenes in travel crisis
Guyana Chronicle
December 22, 2004
HUNDREDS of passengers heading here from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Caribbean for the Christmas holidays have been stranded by British West Indies Airways (BWIA) at various ports, the Government Information Agency (GINA) said yesterday.
The agency said that in a bid to address the problem, Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, Clement Rohee, spoke with Minister of Trade and Industry of Trinidad and Tobago, Kenneth Valley yesterday morning.
In a telephone conversation, Minister Valley said a shortage of aircraft resulted in hundreds of passengers being stranded at various ports to Guyana, the agency reported.
Many passengers who have been brought to Guyana found that their baggage had been left behind and the airline is making arrangements to get the luggage here.
BWIA, in an advertisement in today’s newspapers (see ad on page eight) said the baggage is being air freighted today by DHL.
Valley, who has ministerial responsibility for the airline, told Mr. Rohee that a flight left Port of Spain for Georgetown yesterday morning and another was expected to leave in the afternoon with passengers stranded at Piarco International Airport, and some of the baggage that was left behind.
The remaining pieces of baggage will come in on later flights this week.
GINA said Valley expects the buildup of passengers will be cleared by today, when the situation should return to normal.
BWIA passengers en route to Guyana have been experiencing delayed and overbooked flights and left behind baggage over the past few days.
Some passengers in transit at Piarco had been there for as long as four days before being flown to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, GINA said.