Beewee blues: Some luggage arrives; delays continue
By Oscar P. Clarke
Stabroek News
December 23, 2004
BWIA's flight woes continued yesterday with delays, stranded passengers and missing luggage.
While some long-suffering passengers, who arrived here since last week, received their luggage yesterday, others have not. Several hundred people, many of them Guyanese coming home for Christmas yesterday experienced long delays in reaching their destinations, with some stranded in Trindad and others in North America.
This despite the intervention on Tuesday of Minister of Foreign Trade and International Corporation, Clement Rohee, who had telephoned Trinidad and Tobago Industry Minister, Ken Valley to enquire about arrangements for the movement of passengers and luggage. Rohee had also visited BWIA's local office where airline officials and the private sector were meeting passengers.
According to GINA, Valley had told Rohee that the situation was the result of a shortage of aircraft, but that several flights left on Tuesday and the build-up of passengers should have eased by yesterday.
However Stabroek News understands that passengers booked to travel on BWIA from Toronto continued to experience frustrations as flights were pushed back for many hours. A flight scheduled to arrive early yesterday morning did not arrive until yesterday afternoon.
Meanwhile, passengers who arrived on BWIA flights minus their luggage over the last week or so, began uplifting these yesterday after the majority of the pieces arrived on a specially chartered DHL flight.
BWIA Area Manager Carlton DeFour said the plane arrived in the early afternoon with most of the luggage that was left at Piarco airport in Trinidad and Grantley Adams in Barbados.
He said passengers must travel to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri to uplift their bags as no facility existed for them to be brought to the city.
He said any attempt to ferry the 1000-odd pieces of luggage to a central holding facility where they would be held safely until delivered to their owners would be a "logistical nightmare". Further, the requirement of customs examinations of some of the bags made it impossible for the airline moving to have them delivered to passengers.
Meanwhile, several frustrated passengers who journeyed to the airport yesterday to secure their belongings vented their anger at staff at that location whom they accused of further delaying their efforts to claim their luggage.
And some continued to experience disappointment at the non-arrival of their pieces while others complained about lost personal items.
DeFour had earlier told Stabroek News that apart from the DHL flight yesterday a further flight was scheduled for today with the remaining luggage.
Since last week BWIA has been ferrying passengers without luggage after the airline was ordered to have the cargo hold lining on its five Boeing 757s refitted to meet certain standards.
At the same time, this newspaper understands two of its aircraft were grounded, adding to the current chaos.
Passengers endured long hours of waiting at airports or were left stranded as a result of the airline's shortage of aircraft.
A report in the Trinidad Guardian newspaper yesterday had said the number of disgruntled BWIA customers had increased, with some having been stranded for as long as 11 hours, both in Trinidad and North America.
According to the Guardian report, BWIA Corporate Communications Manager Dionne Ligoure said in an interview: "We have a baggage problem at this time. It's a combination of factors, chief among them volume - a large volume of baggage."
She said BWIA was doing its best to recover and to bring the schedule back to normalcy while acknowledging that it was hurting and inconveniencing passengers.
BWIA had also given three hotline numbers in Guyana 261-2202, 261-2331 and 261-2363, but passengers experienced frustration in trying to use these numbers to get information as they were either busy or were not being answered.
Meanwhile, like the two previous days the BWIA Robb Street office remained a hive of activity as weary passengers jostled with each other to enquire about their bags or claim their US$25 inconvenience compensation. Up to early last evening persons were still waiting to be processed.
From as early as 8 am, passengers from several parts of the country descended on the airline office.
The staffers were stretched to the limit as they sought to deal with the ever-increasing numbers.
Inadequate seating and the lengthy claim process saw many expressing dissatisfaction and disgust. Some, frustrated at the lengthy waiting period, opted to leave preferring to chance a trip to the airport in an attempt to get their luggage.
Questioned on the arrangements to handle the flood of queries DeFour said contingency measures had been put in place, including the rental of the Demerara Mutual Life Conference Room on the upper floor.
However many persons visiting the facility complained that there was not enough staff to deal with their queries.
One passenger who had arrived over the weekend and was scheduled to depart yesterday afternoon was at a loss to determine how he would manage to obtain his luggage prior to departure.
Another passenger, Eon Croal, who also arrived on Sunday from Antigua was up to yesterday midday still trying to secure his luggage. He was particularly concerned since he is scheduled to depart on a flight this morning. He was forced to purchase clothing during his stay.
DeFour acknowledged that there were some complex cases such as these that he was forced to deal with after consultations with the respective individuals.
Other passengers said they would not be returning to Guyana since the experience was not one they anticipated especially as the country is being promoted as a tourist destination.