Refunds available, once official complaints are made – PS

Despite the widespread outrage over the recent cancellations of Dynamic Airways flights during the Christmas holidays, no complaints have been officially lodged with the local authorities by the affected passengers.

During the Public Infrastructure Ministry’s yearend press conference on Wednesday, Permanent Secretary Balraj Balram disclosed that the Ministry currently holds a $40 million bond from the chartered carrier that can be claimed by disgruntled passengers seeking refunds.
However, he noted that in order to benefit from the bond, the passengers have to first file complaints with the relevant authorities, such as the Consumers’ Protection Agency.
“The bond is a case where passengers claim a refund, the Ministry examines those claims and then effect that claim against the bond. In this case, this did not happen… As far as we know, no person has filed a claim or any refund or anything,” Balram noted.
Holiday travel plans for hundreds of passengers in Guyana and New York were disrupted as the air carrier was forced to cancel at least two flights the weekend before Christmas after two of its aircraft developed problems.
Some 600 travellers were stranded from Saturday to Monday at the John F Kennedy (JFK) Airport and at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).
The airline’s local representative, Captain Gerry Gouveia had explained that on December 17, a ground handling truck at the JFK Airport crashed into the airplane and damaged its engine shell. The “backup” airplane, he continued, was activated for travel but after three flights to Guyana, it developed mechanical problems with the flaps and had to be taken in for maintenance.
Gouveia said it was believed that the secondary plane’s mechanical problem would have been short-term, but upon further technical checks, they discovered that would not be the case. As a result, the company had to pull an aircraft from its Ecuador route to shuttle the stranded passengers.
In light of the delays which saw persons spending as much as three days at the airports waiting for flights, a report of the situation was submitted to the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) by Roraima Airways on behalf of Dynamic Airlines.
“We are now reviewing that particular report to see: one, if its factual and two, we’re looking at some strategies that we may have to implement in order not to have such a disruption of this magnitude again. But those are under review at the moment,” GCAA Director, Egbert Fields pointed out.
According to Fields, after the review of the report is completed, a determination will then be made on steps to be taken going forward.