LIAT slammed in Barbados

Jul 25, 2013 News

Against the backdrop of the euphoria of a LIAT flight from Barbados landing at Ogle Airport for the first time, Monday, the airline was criticized on Barbados radio for poor management and customer service one day later.
Speaking on the popular ‘Down to Brasstacks’ radio call-in programme, Talk Show Host and Caribbean Pollster, Peter Wickham, slammed the island-hopper service for over-booking, changing schedules without notification, re-routing a flight to Timehri instead of the more convenient Ogle, and inconsiderate treatment of an under-aged traveler last week.
And Wickham, who heads the Caribbean Development Research Services that conducts opinion polls across the region, said his experiences beginning last Wednesday were the most recent in a long line of complaints against the quality of service offered.
“This last experience was mild. It’s just that it is fresh in my mind. I’ve had worst experiences before,” he told Kaieteur News following the radio programme.
Wickham said that he had booked a LIAT flight to depart Barbados last Wednesday for Ogle, but on querying Tuesday evening, was told that the destination was reverted to Timehri. “So that was my first disappointment. As you would imagine, people prefer to fly into Ogle,” he said.
On arrival at Barbados Grantley Adams Airport for departure, he was then told the flight was re-scheduled to Thursday because of overbooking that resulted from contraction of flights to Guyana to two per day only.
Scheduling problems again surfaced on the return flight Saturday, when he along with other travelers turned up at Timehri at 1pm for a 3pm flight only to be told there was overbooking, and he is to depart Sunday.
But after being checked into a hotel, he was asked to return to the airport at 8:30pm because a flight was then available. Wickham said he was surprised to see other passengers who were at the airport since 1pm still awaiting the arrival of the aircraft for their flight that night.
“When the plane landed everybody applauded,” he said.
“In all of this, my challenge is I find that LIAT doesn’t really communicate with you,” he said.
“I saw in the situation in Guyana on Saturday where they had an underaged young man sitting in the airport for almost six hours, then they tell him that he can’t come to Barbados because he wouldn’t be able to get to Antigua [on a connecting flight],” Wickham said on radio, explaining that the boy was then rescheduled for a Sunday flight.
But, the talk show host said that when he landed in Barbados Saturday night, the grandfather was at the airport awaiting the arrival of the youngster.
Shareholder countries in LIAT, Barbados, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and St Vincent and the Grenadines, recently took out a US$65 million loan from the Caribbean Development Bank to boost services through upgrade of aircraft fleet and other capital works.
Complaints about the regional air travel service, however, continue to abound.
Adding to Wickham’s public disclosure of his ordeal, the Barbados Nation newspaper on Monday reported a number of passengers expressing complaints.
“LIAT seems to have numerous problems. They have boosted their airline fleet but the same problems remain and, if anything, it has gotten worse. In the last six weeks of travelling with LIAT, I have five, six, and eight-hour delays at various times, and now lost luggage,” the paper quoted salesman, Vincent Ramsey, who uses the airline to conduct business across the region.
He was among a number of persons expressing disgust in the newspaper over the past few days with the quality of service.

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LIAT slammed in Barbados

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