NMIA, Carib Airlines officials to meet over flight delays

Kimmo Matthews

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

THE management of the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) in Kingston is to meet with the owners of Caribbean Airlines in the coming weeks to address a significant increase in the numbers of flight delays and cancellations over the past two weeks.

Customers have complained that the breakdown in flight schedules, which became more frequent two weeks ago when the Trinidad-owned Caribbean Airlines assumed full control of the operations of Air Jamaica, has been wreaking havoc on their travel plans.

Yesterday, Mark Williams, NMIA's vice-president of commercial development, marketing and planning, said that passengers have not only complained about the long delays, but also the lack of timely information about their flights.

"Based on the number of delays that Caribbean Airlines have been having over the past week-and-a-half we have decided to have some meetings with senior management of Caribbean Airline out of Trinidad," said Williams.

"The meetings will be held later this month," he added.

Yesterday, as has become the norm in recent weeks, several flights were delayed for hours, upsetting customers.

In one case, flight No 15 to New York was pushed back from 6:30 am to 9:00 pm last night.

"I have been here since 3:30 am only to hear that my flight was pushed back to 9:30 (pm)," said Kim Pommel, who was among a group that was heading to Morocco.

Another passenger, Jia Lee, complained about the lack of information.

"We have been here all morning no one has said anything to us," said Lee.

Meantime, Paul Morrison was concerned as to the whereabouts of his checked luggage.

"I have been here from 5:00 am, the flight was delayed and we are still not clear as to where our luggage is at this time; this is poor," he said.

Efforts to get a comment from officials at Caribbean Airlines were unsuccessful.