Irate EZjet passengers turned up at the Ministry of Public Works yesterday for their refunds only to be further angered by a system which they described as “long and drawn out”.
The Ministry of Public Works had recently announced that because of the large number of claims, persons will only be getting 64% of their ticket costs.
The money for the refunds will be taken from EZjet’s US$200,000 cash bond that the government has been holding at Scotiabank.
At the office yesterday, 200 numbers were shared out by the guard and persons were then told to listen for their names which were being called out in alphabetical order by an employee. After hearing their names, passengers were instructed to form a line and listen for their respective numbers so that they can proceed into the office to collect their cheques.
Many persons expressed dissatisfaction with the system and the way it was being handled.
“Illiterate persons calling names and numbers, 64% is not enough but I don’t mind as long as I get my money today,” one passenger said.
“Everyone got full money back in foreign, what happen to Guyana?” another asked.
“My name starts with B and my number is 179 and I have been waiting since 7 am. This system makes no sense,” said an angry passenger.
“Makes no sense, name called but still have to wait”
“This is an out-of-order system. Names should have been published in the newspapers or posted at the gate so that it would save people a lot of time. Many of us are coming from as far away as Linden and Essequibo,” a passenger complained.
Many other persons were angry because they did not have the time to register, they said, and so they turned up yesterday thinking that they would still have an opportunity to do so, only to be told that the time had passed and the letters they wrote asking for refunds were no longer valid.
Persons were also very skeptical about giving other airlines a try given the experience they had with EZjet, which they said was very unprofessional. They called for the government to invest in an airline, and to stop allowing chartered services to operate here.
EZjet was forced to cancel flights after the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) on November 8, 2012 suspended its operations, leading to the Government of Guyana through the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority following suit. The DOT’s move came days after the airline’s founder Sonny Ramdeo’s former employer had filed an embezzlement lawsuit against him.
Government took over the refunding process after angry passengers descended on numerous occasions on EZ jet’s Brickdam offices.
Only passengers who bought tickets in Guyana are being refunded.
The refunding process will continue for the next two weeks from 09:00 hrs to 11:00 hrs and 13:00 hrs to 15:00 hrs at the Ministry of Public Work’s office in Kingston.
