North American passengers headed to Georgetown with the Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) will be giving priority screening while in transit at Trinidad’s Piarco International Airport.
In a statement on its website, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) announced that the new screening method takes effect from Wednesday, July 6, 2016.
A team of officials from the CJIA and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) recently met with CAL and Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority representatives to discuss the hassle passengers experienced while in transit in Trinidad, according to the statement.
Prior to the new screening process, in-transit passengers were subjected to an arduous security process causing them, in many instances, to have to hurry to board the connecting flight to the CJIA.
“However, from Wednesday, a transit stamp will be placed in the boarding passes of all Georgetown-bound passengers for easy identification and priority processing through T&T’s security checkpoint. Passengers who were screened in the United States of America and Canada will not have to remove their shoes during the rescreening exercise in Port of Spain,” the CJIA statement said.
It, however, cautioned that if these passengers mix or come in contact with unscreened passengers, all transfer passengers would be subjected to the normal screening procedures.
“Further, any duty-free items over the 3.4 ounces will be handed over by passengers to the transit desk and will be returned to passengers on the boarding of their flight to Georgetown,” it stated.
CJIA Chief Executive Officer Ramesh Ghir was quoted as saying he was pleased with the new development, and commended CAL for pursing options to improve its service for Guyana passengers.
This new development comes on the heels of a recent spat between the CJIA and CAL over the dumping of duty-free purchases of passengers travelling from Guyana, when they were in-transit at Piarco.
After days of back and forth and threats by the CJIA to revoke CAL’s permit to fly the Guyana route, an agreement was met to secure the duty-free merchandise from Guyana.
This is a wonderful era for living in and travelling to and from Guyana. Guyanese administrators have returned to the performance imperative. The will and strength of Guyanese have been restored. And praise be to Allah; Lord of worlds.