Piarco International Airport — Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

Ron Boville (Ottawa Canada) - April 4, 2013
Why is WestJet not shown in the airlines list, not to mention Carribean Airlines, both of which fly out of Piarco??????

John Brooks (Canada) - January 25, 2013
I sent this letter to POS Administration on Dec 2/12. As at Jan 25/13, I have not had the courtesy of a reply.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you to bring to your attention an incident that happened to me during a transit stop in POS airport on Dec 1/12.

I was en route from Georgetown, Guyana to my home in Ottawa, Canada. I travel this route frequently for work in Guyana. However, this was the second time I had ‘transited’ through Trinidad – the first being on the way down on Nov 25th.

I was travelling on Caribbean Airlines flight BW662 and was told by a stewardess to visit the Caribbean shop in POS to buy the gifts I saw in the on board ‘duty free’ magazine.

On landing in POS I was directed to go straight from the BW662 flight to the transit lounge...where I was to board the BW 600 flight due to leave at 14.35 (it eventually left at 15.35)...I had a 2-3 hour wait...I was told I could not access the Caribbean Airlines shop!

Having experienced the ‘transit lounge’ on my outward journey, I knew it to be a morgue of a place if ever I saw one..with one duty free shop and one hopeless snack bar...

So I asked again if I could access the Caribbean Airlines shop but was prevented from doing so by the airport staff – I had to go immediately to the transit lounge!

After much debate the airport staff agreed to let me go into the area adjacent to the transit lounge.

I was amazed to find wonderful stores like Rituals (great coffee, sandwiches – I am a big fan), Ishmael M Khan's bookstore..etc....however, the only way I could go to the Caribbean Airlines shop was to formally enter Jamaica and re-access the departure lounge.

As you must be aware in most airports worldwide, passengers in transit can access the rest of the departure lounge...why not in POS? Why are they stuck in the ‘morgue’?

I have copied here Rituals and Caribbean Airlines (Customer Relations by fax +1 868 669 0336) – they, and all shops in the departure lounge, must be unhappy to lose valuable transit passenger trade.

I will be traveling all of next year to/from Guyana ...however, my experience with Trinidad POS will not likely induce me to transit there..

Regards,

John Brooks