Constellation Tours has undertaken to refund in full all passengers who were booked to leave Guyana on its cancelled flights over the weekend. Those returning to their homes in New York and Miami will be accommodated on other flights at the charter service’s expense.
Over 200 passengers were stranded at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri over the weekend after Constellation cancelled two flights to Miami and New York, for reasons still unknown. The passengers had thronged the Quamina Street local office demanding their money back or an assurance of a flight out.
At a brief press conference yesterday Minister of Tourism Manniram Prashad said he was angry at the latest development, particularly since at a meeting with the company’s management close to five months ago, he had been assured that things would have been put in order. He said the company co-operated for a short while but may have gone back to its “old habit of treating the travelling public with contempt”. He said this would not be tolerated and insisted that they must be treated fairly and with respect.
Prashad told reporters that he tried, but was unsuccessful in making contact with the local management and even after a visit to the office by a team from his ministry he still could not elicit an explanation for the delay. Constellation has avoided contact with the media.
Prashad said he eventually contacted the owner of the company, Mujtabah Mohammed, in Trinidad and he made the commitment to refund the passengers.
According to him, Mohammed apologized for the inaction of his local staff as well as the delays but gave no real explanation as to what the problem was. He said Mohammed mentioned the high cost of fuel and said something about problems with the charter service.
“It would seem it’s the aircraft and also I was told that apparently the fuel prices went up by 40%, but they were not specific in terms of the problem,” he said.
He said the man assured that he would refund in full those passengers who were to travel to New York and Miami and the others would be accommodated on other flights at the full expense of Constellation, even if it cost more than the Constellation ticket for the same routes.
“You can take this as the word of Mr Mohammed, because he told me this and I hold him to his word,” Prashad told reporters.
He urged all passengers to make contact with the local office today and said ministry officials would also be on hand to ensure that the promise is fulfilled. Constellation Tours charters two aircraft for its operations, one from Primaris in Canada and the other from Zoom in the US.
Prashad said Mohammed told him he was not pulling out of Guyana but was just experiencing some problems and was arranging with another airline to enter into a charter agreement to be more efficient.
Prashad said government was trying to work with Constellation because of its track record. According to him, its Toronto leg has been operating very efficiently.
He said Mohammed also promised to ensure that a system was put in place so that passengers’ issues would be addressed.
What next
On countless occasions, many passengers leaving Guyana have been delayed by airlines and have had to endure struggles with no reasonable explanations from airlines. Asked about a likely position the government would take following this latest incident, Prashad said there was a proposal to look at the escrow funds, which airlines are obligated to lodge when they enter the local market, and work out some mutual agreement where there could be sanctions for instances such as this.
“So we’re looking at that to try to get a policy where when you cancel flights for more than 24 hours there is automatic compensation, hotel accommodation and the necessaries which you would have from a scheduled service. I think the time has come when we will have to implement these measures at the initial stages when they are applying for their licences,” he said.
Delta Airlines is expected to provide flights to New York from Guyana from June 1. Sky Service is also expected to provide a charter service in the ‘summer’ season. Zoom Airlines is to provide direct flights between to London and Georgetown from November.
