Trinidad-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) has responded to an ultimatum delivered by the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) in Guyana as it seeks to beat a deadline imposed by the South American country’s airport authorities.
CJIA has threatened to cancel its agreement with CAL unless the carrier rectifies a situation impacting passengers and duty free concessionaires over duty free items purchased in Guyana being dumped in Trinidad.
CAL has been given 21 days to “remedy the situation,” with the CJIA warning that it will be “at liberty to proceed to cancel the Air Carrier Agreement under Article 9.3.”
Passengers and duty free concessionaires in Guyana have been complaining that duty free items are being dumped in Trinidad once they were bought in Guyana, according to media reports.
In a conciliatory statement, CAL responded that Guyana is an important destination and the airline remains committed to “our loyal Guyanese customers whom we have consistently served with reliable service since our start in 2007.”
The Trinidad-based airline nevertheless noted that while it has been designated the carrier for Guyana for the Toronto and New York destinations, carrying over 350,000 passengers to and from Guyana annually, it must comply with all regulatory directives of the sovereign states into which it operates, as do all other international airlines.
It pointed out that one such regulatory body is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which governs the security processes and conducts audits for all carriers flying into the United States of America.
The airline added that in light of screening rules which are in accordance with TSA measures being applied at any Last Point of Departure (LPD) to the United States, and a recent TSA audit, a restriction on the entry of transit duty free into the sterile holding areas of all transit airports has been imposed.
“Consequently, customers departing from Guyana or any other Caribbean destination with duty free items who are connecting on flights to the United States on any airline cannot enter the sterile holding area of any airport through which they transit en route to the United States,” the airline indicated.
CAL noted that while it sought to balance its regulatory obligations “with our customers’ desire to make duty free purchases,” this proved to be challenging as it resulted in items remaining unclaimed at the final destination, as well as damage to fragile items.
“Customer comfort and convenience are top priorities of Caribbean Airlines and we continue to collaborate with stakeholders, including the Civil Aviation and Airport authorities, to achieve a workable solution to ensure we remain compliant with the TSA regulations and provide quality service to our valued customers,” the statement added. (Caribbean360.com)
This is just a bunch of BS mumbo jumbo to try to burnish their image!!!
…..HOGWASH…….
Oh what a frivolous excuse from Caribbean Airlines,,what do they term as a “sterile holding area”,,That does not go beyond the security check point ..The connection in transit passengers from Guyana are placed within a secured area within the perimeter of he security check point with their duty free purchases ..why is it being taken from them..then deliberately displaced..CAL recognized Guyana as viable and lucrative air route..so why stupidly trade that for forcing In transit passengers to make duty free purchases in Trinidad,which does not carry most items obtainable at Guyana CJIA duty free concession..
Guyanese have always been treated unfair by Caribbean airline ,TT and Barbados, for the 50th independent celebration , Caribbean airline carried up there tickets price, even though fule cost has been down for almost two years now, while a be carrier to Guyana was 40% cheaper . Guyanese did not had much choice so we put up with it while our hands was in the lion jaws, now we have a few options .i hope also this nonsense of stopping us off in TT to get tax and making us go through security checkpoints since we just came off the plane coming or going !!!
Caribbean airlines treat Guyanese and or Guyanese American like dirt. They have no respect for us, especially when you have to be in transit in Trinidad.
Firstly, are the other airlines not subject to the same TSA directives? Why aren’t we hearing from them? Secondly, what about carry-on pieces? Are these being disallowed too? As a citizen of Caricom, I find this ‘measure’ very offensive.