A flight experience

EDITOR: St. Vincent and the Grenadines is under pressure to compete and comply with international standards of safety at our airports and ports. This became essentially necessary after 9/11’s catastrophe in New York and Washington, United States. {{more}}

The question is, can S.V.G. meet the required standards with staffs who do not seem to understand safety issues? This is a burning question after three experiences at our airports, as airport personnel display incompetence and disrespectful behaviours to passengers at E.T. Joshua and Union Island airports. It takes deep faith to continue patronizing locally owned businesses.

More fun, more flair, more fantasy left such bad taste that future visits are to take low priority. With a prepaid ticket, timely check-in, a boarding pass in hand, timely security check, I was left stranded in the passengers’ lounge. My luggage was sent on; not a single call to check if I had a toilet emergency (not that I had one) – I was only reading.

No re-check to compare the number of passengers to the number of boarding passes returned. The details that followed are too humiliating to recount. Every effort was made to make me the culprit. Thanks to the chief security personnel who spoke up to remove the assumption that I was not there. I witnessed a similar incident with a couple of tourists.

What a shame! My goods spoilt. No compensation. But worst of all was the attitudinal behaviour. Much is left to be desired – such high cost of flying to the Southern Grenadines does not require blatant disregard for passengers’ rights.

Vernalyn Blencoe