Charter trips to Costa Rica and Pamama during the Easter weekend left some passengers travel weary from long delays and upset over a lack of information about what was happening.
On one of the trips, a charter from Grand Cayman to Costa Rica by Charter Express, there was a four- to five-hour delay on the outbound journey and a 26- to 28-hour delay on the return journey.
One of the passengers was Lisa McGinty, who travelled with two others.
Although the outgoing flight was to depart Grand Cayman at 6.50pm, Ms McGinty said they were left sitting in the departure hall until 11.30pm.
‘At no point was any announcement made to inform us of the delay. I was very displeased, as were all the other passengers. The first night of our holiday in San Juan was ruined as a result and we had to cancel the plans we had made.’
A representative from the company Charter Express said it used the services of a new company, Costa Rica Skies Airlines, which it had previously used in December 2007, with no major problems.
‘We sold the charter in good faith after relying on the written agreement from Costa Rica Skies as well as having some prior knowledge as to their reliability.’
On this charter the plane arrived in Grand Cayman almost five hours late.
‘We have since learned that a major reason for the delay in arriving was due to the company and same aircraft being involved in other charters within Central America during the Easter weekend,’ said a Charter Express representative.
An announcement was made to the charter passengers in the departure lounge advising that the flight charter was experiencing some delays, but some passengers apparently did not hear it.
The return flight Monday was originally scheduled to depart at noon, however it did not take off until 11.30pm. However, it did not make it to Grand Cayman.
‘It took off and when I woke up I couldn’t believe it when there were loads of lights everywhere and I thought it looked very big for Cayman and the next thing I saw a big mountain and I said ‘Oh my God we’re back’ [in Costa Rica],’ said Ms McGinty.
After landing it was announced that Owen Roberts International Airport was closed and that was why they had to turn back.
However, the Cayman Islands Airport Authority confirmed that it makes its facilities available to the airlines and travelling public at all times. CEO of the CIAA David Frederick responded to a query from the Caymanian Compass by stating:
‘On the night in question the duty officer attempted to confirm the proposed arrival time of the flight from Costa Rica from the handling agent who was unable to confirm what time the flight would arrive.
‘The airport was subsequently closed at 11.25pm and would reopen on notification that the flight was actually operating. On receipt of notification that the flight had departed, the airport was reopened at 1.30am only to learn that the flight had returned to Costa Rica.’
Charter Express said it has had conflicting accounts as to what happened.
‘But it appears that there were some communication flaws between (Costa Rica Skies) and the Grand Cayman airport as we were initially told that the flight returned because the Cayman airport was closed. Then we were told that it was due to the pilots need for rest as laid down by international pilots regulations.’
Although the Charter Express representative said passengers received an apology from an agent of Costa Rica Skies, Ms McGinty said there was no apology.
‘When we got on board the two times coming back there was no apology. It was unbelievable. I’ve never been treated like that in my life as a customer.’
After then being told the flight would leave at 6.30, passengers were later advised of a delay until noon. There were more delays and the flight finally left at about 4.30pm on Tuesday afternoon.
With regard to the lack of information during the long delays, Charter Express said, ‘We acted in good faith through-out this charter and tried to give information out only when we ourselves were aware of it and only after we tried to ascertain that it was the correct and truthful information. We did not give out information that we could not rely on and did not wish to inflame an already bad situation with poor or untrue information.’
Because of the delays on the return leg, passenger Ciaran Barry had to change his connecting flight to Europe, costing him GB£163, and Ms McGinty and her boyfriend had to use up an annual leave day sitting around an airport.
Mr. Barry said, ‘I’m adamant that the travel agent [Charter Express] should be reimbursing this cost to me as the substandard product delivered to me by them was far from the product sold to me originally.’
Charter Express said of the monetary expense and inconvenience caused to passengers:
‘We are really sorry about this, but we have no control over the actual flight and/or affairs of the charter company we used.
‘We had to pay additional taxi expenses and hotel expenses and bus fares as a result of these delays.’
Charter Express’s representative said the company had been doing business for 13 years.
‘I would state that if I had known that these delays would have occurred, I certainly would have not proceeded with the charter.’
Indeed, Ms McGinty felt the same way.
‘From our perspective, this was not a holiday, but a very stressful experience that we would have done anything to avoid,’ she said.
Charter Express pledged to make efforts to improve reliability in future charters. ‘We will try to ensure that future charters have some reliability by us having retained a portion of the contracted payment until the charter is over and all parties are satisfied.’
The charter company also expressed its sincere apologies to the passengers on the trip.
‘We will endeavour to make sure that these types of undue delays do not occur in the future.’
Another problem occurred with the charter to Pamama operated by Latin Tours.
Passenger Kim Lovelock said in a letter to the editor that the outbound leg of the trip was four hours late and there was no representative from Latin Tours at the airport to let passengers know what the delay was.
But owner of Latin Tours John Foster said there was a Latin Tours representative in the departure lounge and he informed passengers what was happening.
Mr. Foster said the reason for the outbound delay was the captain fell ill, so a new crew had to be brought on board to fly the plane to Cayman.
‘Crew problems, schedule problems, maintenance problems… all kinds of problems happen on airplanes,’ he said.
Coming back, the plane was due to leave Panama at 8am Easter Monday.
Ms Lovelock wrote:
‘We arrived at the Panama Airport at 6am on Easter Monday to return to Cayman, to find once again there was utter confusion. No one had any idea where our plane was or what time it was due to arrive.’
Mr. Foster said he received a call Sunday evening from the representative of the carrier saying they had a schedule change and the plane was going to be delayed five hours.
‘At that point I spent half the night trying to contact [the Latin Tours representative] who was in Panama. The Panama phone lines were going crazy. I never had an opportunity [to reach him] and I tried up until 1am in the morning.’
People arrived at the airport at 6am in the morning and at 7am Mr. Foster finally contacted the Latin Tours representative.
‘I told him he’s got to get a hold of every passenger he could to tell them there’d be a delay until midday. Well, the passengers were spread all about the airport. He did the best he could to try to find the people.’
Mr. Foster said he took responsibility for the communication problem.
‘I tried and it just didn’t work out,’ he said. ‘Now, I have rectified that problem. I bought Blackberries for each one of the representatives where I can email them so it can’t happen anymore.’
Mr. Foster asserted that it’s the first time he’s had such a problem in over 70 charters to Panama, although there has been some element of delay in the past with some of them.
Mr. Foster said the passengers were scheduled to be back to Cayman around 11am; the plane got there around 5pm, so it was basically a six to seven hour delay at the airport.
However, he said about 80 per cent of the 119 passengers on that plane understood the problem. One of them, Sydney Griffiths, wrote to Mr. Foster.
‘People should take into consideration that unforeseen circumstances arise daily in relation to air travel and that Mr. Foster should not be looked upon in any negative manner in this regard,’ he wrote.
Another concern denoted in Ms Lovelock’s letter was luggage. ‘. . . there were individuals on the return leg of the flight that had huge amounts of luggage. They were not charged for excess luggage, it was just loaded onto the already very full plane.’
Mr. Foster said people go to Panama to shop.
‘The reason why people go on these charters, they go there to purchase goods. It is my contention that I do everything I can to make sure they get them [goods] back here and don’t get left in Panama so the planes are loaded to whatever they can hold.’
He said the airplane was filled up to its legal limit; otherwise it would not be permitted to fly.
‘I’ve been in business for about 12 years with my little company, for five and a half years I’ve been doing charters to different destinations. I care about the passengers, I care about their safety, I care about their goods and I care about how they are treated. I’m a consummate professional; I’m very organised.
‘I’m not shirking any responsibility. I’m apologising to all the passengers, not just this one person. I want to let you know that I care about the people.’
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