— following consistent cancellation of flights

REGIONAL carrier, Fly Jamaica Airways, has been written and summoned to a meeting with the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) following consistent cancellation of flights over the last few months.

Several complaints have reached the GCAA about cancellation of flights leaving Guyana, Jamaica and the United States (US) which led to the authority requesting a meeting with the management of the company early next week.

This was confirmed by Director General of the GCAA, Egbert Field, on Sunday.
On the same day, the Guyana Chronicle reported that passengers were left stranded overseas, indefinitely, due to the cancellation of flights by the airline.
Fly Jamaica’s Commercial Manager, Carl Bowen, explained that the company has been leasing planes since November 30 to facilitate passengers. A source disclosed that the company’s planes went out of service and according to Bowen, the leasing of foreign aircraft resulted in “crew-related issues”.

He said in addition, the snow storm in the US has prevented flights from leaving the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport, which has caused delays in Jamaica as well.
This is due to the fact that the flights leaving the US would have to stop in Jamaica to collect passengers there.

However, Bowen sought to assure passengers that “flights will return to normal by Wednesday,” when the existing issues are resolved.
He added that while these are issues which are unavoidable in the aviation industry, customers do have a right to complain.
In the interim, Bowen said that efforts are ongoing to have some passengers accommodated on other carriers while others have been compensated for the inconvenience.

“We have not neglected passengers or left them stranded. All of whom we had contact information for were contacted and those who needed compensation, once they communicated these to us, we examined them and have been providing as much assistance as we can,” he said.