(Trinidad Guardian) Caribbean Airlines (CAL) has denied claims that they left special needs passengers off a Saturday night flight from Trinidad to Tobago although there were available seats.
In a social media post on Sunday, a passenger claimed 12 to 15 seats were left empty on the last flight from Piarco to the ANR Robinson International Airport.
The passenger commented: “This criminality occurred when the flight attendant closed the door with 12 -15 empty seats on the last flight to Tobago And there were about 40 people, senior citizens and children, who were told they had to wait until 3 am to know if they will be able to purchase a ticket and then be listed on standby.
“Before the plane lift off, I left my seat at the front of the plane to inquire of the flight attendants why they are leaving with empty seats and there are people sleeping in the airport trying to get to Tobago.”
The post continued: “The flight attendants said they don’t work at the counter this is the ground staff jobs so they can’t do anything about it. Needless to say . . . The last flight to Tobago was approximately 12- 15 seats empty and senior citizens and children were made to sleep in Piarco Airport last night.”
However, in a statement on Sunday, the airline said all ticketed standby customers were accommodated on the flight.
“Around 8 pm an announcement was made advising that the airline could accommodate some un-ticketed persons for travel and tickets sales were open to do so. Unfortunately, when the announcement was made the crowd became uncontrollable and abusive to the customer service agents.
“Airports Authority security officers also attempted to have the customers line-up, however, the customers did not co-operate and continued to verbally abuse the security officers and staff. Eventually, in the interest of safety, ticket sales had to be stopped.”
The airline said at 10 pm there was another call for customers with special needs, those travelling with children and Club Card holders to purchase tickets to be accommodated on available seats.
“This was done and these passengers were accommodated,” CAL said.
