PASSENGERS AT THE Grantley Adams International Airport were left waiting for three hours this morning to board flights as a system malfunction forced check-ins to be done manually.
People flying on American Airlines (AA), Jet Blue and Caribbean Airlines were the ones affected, with the Miami leg of the American Airlines routes the hardest hit.
Agents were busy making sure more than 200 patiently waiting passengers were accommodated. This meant filling out a form by hand, checking their names against a list and then going into the back to print the boarding passes.
Passengers were told the system went down late Saturday night.
Since AA operates only two flights daily to Miami International Airport, at 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., passengers affected by last Thursday’s strike which shut down all the ports of entry for about seven hours, had to be put on flights leaving the following days.
This morning, there were still passengers trying to get home, and up to 10 a.m. were at the airport waiting to see if they could get on the 7 a.m. flight to Miami on American Airlines.
The flight had to be delayed because of the system shutdown.
A representative from Fujutsi was seen tapping away furiously at a keyboard and when asked the prognosis by an agent, he replied, “This is a lot of headaches. We can’t identify what is the issue.”
Passengers to other Caribbean destinations were also affected.
To compound the problem, some passengers said they were on non-reservations, meaning they were told to check in each day for seat availability. They could not leave on Thursday, Friday or Saturday because all the flights were overbooked. Due back to work tomorrow, they said they were not sure what would happen if they did not leave at all.
Some passengers with children said they were there from 5 a.m. and up to 9:45 a.m., no one from AA had spoken to them on the status of their travel.
One lady said she was vacationing in St James and would simple stay at the airport to try to get on the 3 p.m. flight.
Just after 10 a.m., passengers were told the morning flight to Miami was closed and to try the one in the evening.
Efforts to get airport management proved futile as calls to the office were not answered. (NS)
