The tedious process of disembarking at Trinidad and Tobago’s Piarco International Airport and passing through security before boarding an aircraft to the United States will be something of the past – effective November 1, 2013.
According to a release from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), the United States of America Transport Security Administration (TSA) has approved the request for the alternate procedure to be applied for passengers from Guyana transiting in Port-of-Spain (POS).
“It means that passengers leaving CJIA and passing through POS can do so hasslefree. The existing process prompted numerous complaints and we had to urgently address the situation with Caribbean Airlines (CAL) officials,” Transport Minister Robeson Benn was quoted in the release as saying.
In August, Minister Benn and acting Tourism Minister Irfaan Ali met with CAL senior executives including Chairman Phillip Marshall and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jagmohan Singh to address several concerns with the airline, including the treatment of local passengers transiting POS.
CJIA CEO Ramesh Ghir held a follow-up meeting in Trinidad, and high on the agenda was the re-screening process, “…so it was decided that CJIA and CAL will jointly approach TSA to review the application for an alternative procedure. Now this has borne fruit, passengers do not have to deplane,” Ghir added.
The CJIA release said too that TT Civil Aviation Authority Director General and CEO Ramesh Lutchmedial told Minister Benn that he was happy “we have been finally able to resolve this”.
