A Dynamics Airways flight is expected to arrive in Guyana erly this morning with passengers who were unable to make it to Guyana for Christmas after the scheduled Christmas Eve flight did not materialize due to mechanical problems, the airline’s local partner Captain Gerry Gouveia said yesterday.
About 250 passengers were booked to travel on the Christmas Eve flight. A New York Post article which was subsequently reported on in the Stabroek News reported that 100 passengers, who were scheduled to travel to Guyana with Dynamic Airways would not make it home for Christmas after they were left stranded at the John F Kennedy (JFK) Airport.
According to the Post, the snag triggered a protest at the airport andpassengers were seen holding up placards.
The report said that the flight was apparently overbooked and a Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) source had released information that the airline would not have any other plane available until December 27.
The Post reported that around 9 am on Christmas Eve about half of the irate passengers were booking hotels, but 45 customers remained at the airport terminal to protest.
Gouveia yesterday disputed that the passengers were “stranded” saying that the passengers are from New York and would have returned to their homes. He denied that the airline had overbooked the flight. He said that the plane is now fully serviceable and was scheduled to leave the JFK airport last night and arrive in Guyana at 7:30 this morning. The plane will then leave Guyana at 5pm for New York.
According to the airline official, the passengers were not “stranded” but as a result of the inability of the flight to leave, those affected returned to the places where they were staying. “So it was not a case where anybody was stranded. They were Guyanese living in New York,” he said.
According to Gouveia, after the 767 aircraft developed mechanical problems, Dynamic Airways managed to acquire a smaller aircraft from an international charter agency but it was unable to accommodate the 250 passengers who were booked to leave.
He said that the airlines tried “very hard” to ensure that the flight was not cancelled and emphasised that the flight was not overbooked.
Yesterday, he insisted that the mechanical problems on the aircraft were fixed thus ensuring that flights would return to the normal schedule. According to Gouveia, for the holiday season and keeping in mind that more Guyanese would be travelling, the airline had decided to put on an extra flight so that Guyanese in particular could come home for the holidays.
He could not say how many persons are scheduled to be on the flight to Guyana but said that his last check with his counterparts in New York revealed that 250 people were booked. He said that the local end of the service is run by Roraima Airways while the New York arrangements are controlled by Dynamic Airways.
Asked if he had any message for his passengers, he said that “we work hard every day and our intention is to make this an efficient and sustainable airline in Guyana.”
Saying that there will be challenges, he said that the airline has “a strong commitment to the passengers.” This is demonstrated in the fact that the airline takes care of its passengers – food, transportation and accommodation – when the need arises, Gouveia said.
However, some passengers have complained of not being given anything to eat and about the sparse information shared by the troubled airline’s officials. One passenger had made this claim in a comment on a post on Gouveia’s Facebook page. Gouveia did not respond to the comment. Persons, over the weekend, have also been calling on the local partner to say something to passengers on his page, a request he did not adhere to.
Gouveia stated that when the airline is in trouble, it does not leave people unattended. “Dynamic is here to stay…we will continue pushing ahead. We have no intention to stop but to work harder to overcome the challenges,” he stressed.
The airline, since it arrived in Guyana, has been hit by constant delays and technical problems. A few days ago, another set of passengers were stranded at the JFK airport.
Last Monday passengers had boarded one of the airline’s aircraft only to discover that there were no pilots on board. New York Transit Police were later called in to investigate and passengers were told to disembark and that their bags would be returned to them.
The airline had a troubled entry into the local market in June, after numerous problems beset its inaugural flight from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri and its subsequent grounding at JFK International Airport in New York for a series of violations.
As a result, it was forced to use alternative airports in Connecticut and New Jersey to transport passengers to Guyana. The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) subsequently pulled Dynamic’s operations approval, giving it up to August 8 to get its business in order. It was cleared to return to the market but problems have since continued.
