The cub scouts who were stuck at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri on Mon-day, due to a flight cancellation, have since left the country.
Two sets of Cub Scouts from Aruba and Curacao were among a contingent that had travelled to Guyana for the 14th Caribbean Cuboree.
However, when the time came for them to return home on Monday evening, they were informed that their InselAir flight had been cancelled as a result of a disruption of the airport’s Automated Airlines Check-in services.
Camp Chief of the Cu-boree Zaida Joaquin yesterday confirmed that the cub scouts finally departed at midnight Monday.
Joaquin had previously registered her concerns with Stabroek News over the airport’s decision to bar the children from returning to their hotels until the issue had been sorted.
“We were told by the airline that immigration would not allow them to check out after they had already checked in. These are children and they have been there since 3 am. It would’ve been nice for them to have been able to return to Georgetown and rest. I don’t understand why this was not allowed,” Joaquin said.
The scouts had arrived at the airport at 3am Monday to board a flight scheduled for 5am. However, due to damage to the Americas II cable, near the shore of Martinique, the airport’s Automated Airlines Check-in services failed and each passenger had to be checked in manually.
It was explained that this system allows for travellers’ passports to be automatically screened by aviation security systems and check-in clerks can access their reservation in the system. When automated, the process takes seconds but when done manually, it can take as long as 15 minutes per passenger.
Meanwhile, Gerry Gouveia, CEO of Roraima Airways, which performs ground handling services for InselAir, stated that his staff was unable to manually check in all passengers for the flight on time and as a result the cabin crew’s flight hours expired and they could no longer operate the flight.
“The flight was cancelled and the cabin crew taken to the hotel where they rested. The passengers will now be taken out of Guyana on a flight scheduled for 10.30 this evening [Monday],” Gouveia had told Stabroek News.
