22 flights but no empty seats

Hundreds of standby passengers to Tobago were left stranded at Piarco International Airport between Thursday and yesterday, due to the unavailability of seats on flights. From 6 am to 9.15 pm, confirmed passengers were able to travel aboard 22 flights on Tobago Express. All confirmed passengers turned up in time to be seated on their flights. One flight catered for 50 passengers on board. BWIA which flew to Tobago with a jet was also unable to accommodate any of the standby passengers. Heather Rodriguez, of Tobago Express told Newsday that most of the stranded passengers are those on standby. She noted that every attempt was being made to address the situation but added that people were informed every step of the way that all the seats on the flights with confirmed passengers were all taken.

She said that persons chose to wait with the hope that passengers booked on confirmed flights did not show up. “We informed all the standby passengers of this and they chose to spend the long hours at the airport,” said Rodriguez. Allan Clovis a director at Tobago Express said that the airline almost doubled its capacity for the Easter holidays, and accommodated the movement of 4,000 passengers each day with 22 flights per day.

“We called in BWIA who supplied six jets yesterday and we tried to accommodate the increased demand,” said Clovis. He said that people go to the airport and hope to get on a flight which creates an impression that the airline is not doing what they are supposed to do. “We were able to accommodate the majority of people and we added a couple of check-in counters to deal with the long lines, and to free the confirmed passengers from the congestion of the standby passengers,” said Clovis.

He advised persons to try booking early for Easter to avoid this problem. Wendell Eversley, one of the affected passengers said that since Thursday afternoon, he attempted to get on a flight to Tobago, and spent Thursday night at the airport. By midday yesterday, he was still waiting for a flight to Tobago. He described the situation as ridiculous and called on the authorities to put in place more flights to accommodate the increase of passengers travelling to Tobago over the Easter holidays.

Joanna Thomas of Florida said that she attempted to fly to Tobago yesterday and was disappointed at being unable to do so. She too decided to wait at the airport with the hope of getting on a flight. Kevan Gibbs, who is promoting the Ultimate Foam Party on Easter Sunday at the Pigeon Point Beach Resort, was also unable to get on a flight to Tobago yesterday. Up until 3 pm yesterday, standby passengers continued to wait at the airport.