– one popular case is of a bride who allegedly missed her own wedding because of the delays/cancellations
Dynamic International Airways has been fined US$120,000 by the United States Department of Transportation (DoT) in light of increased complaints of its flights being delayed and/or cancelled and its failure to refund affected passengers.
Nevertheless, the airline has said it remains committed to staying in the market.
Captain Gerry Gouveia, Dynamic’s Guyana representative, is quoted in today’s Guyana Times as saying that the company will honour its obligations to the US Authority and will continue to improve its service with the aim of avoiding a recurrence of this situation. He emphasised that penalties enforced by DoT will not deter Dynamic Airways from continuing its operations.
Guyana’s regulatory arm, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), had earlier this year engaged the airline about its frequent flight delays and cancellations in light of back-to-back instances occurring during September, October and November 2016, when hundreds of passengers, including Guyanese, were left stranded for hours at the airports; and in one of the most popular cases, a bride allegedly missed her own wedding because of the delays/cancellations.
Dynamic has provided several explanations for these problems, and has constantly assured of delivering better services to its customers.
According to Captain Gouveia, Dynamic is now operating five flights weekly between New York and Guyana, with a 90 per cent on time departure rate. “Between January 2017 and April 2017, we operated approximately 64 direct flights between New York and Guyana, moving approximately 9000 passengers out of Guyana. Our ticket cost remains below US$600 for a return ticket to New York,” he stated.
PENALTIES
DoT, in an order served on Dynamic on April 13, 2017, warned the airline that further enforcement action would be taken if these problems persist. DoT said a probe was triggered after its Aviation Consumer Protection Division received a “significant increase” in the number of complaints against the carrier.
The regulatory agency observed that Dynamic had failed to provide refunds in a timely manner, as required, to passengers affected by cancelled flights, and failed to provide written notice to passengers after cancellations more than ten days out of their return flights.
Reports are that Dynamic will be required to pay half of the hefty fine in six installments, the first of which is to be paid within 30 days of the issuance of the order, and the remaining five to be paid in tranches of US$10,000 every 30 days. The remaining US$60,000 will have to be paid if Dynamic violates the cease-and-desist order within one year from now, or fails to comply with the payment provisions.
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