CAL 'deeply sorry' over flight delays

CARIBBEAN Airlines (CAL) CEO Garvin Medera said on Thursday the airline management was "deeply sorry" over the disruption of travel passengers faced last weekend due to dozens of pilots calling in sick, which grounded flights.

He was addressing a news conference at the CAL head office at Piarco.
"We are deeply sorry they had to face this inconvenience."

Medera said the incident had been "a terrible experience" for passengers.
"We felt the pain of customers."

He said the number of calls from pilots phoning in sick was 20 last Friday, 19 last Saturday and 54 last Sunday.

He said the situation had cancelled 60 flights and affected 5,000 customers/passengers.

Medera estimated the cost of the event was $15 million. This included providing hotel accommodation for affected passengers and the cost of chartered flights plus ferry tickets for domestic passengers.

He said during the disruption, CAL has wet-leased six aircraft flights at a cost of US$350,000 each.

The disruption to flights had been very unexpected for the CAL management, which had been deep in wage negotiations last week just before news of the wave of pilots calling in sick.

Medera opted not to disclose details to the media of what the airline was offering the TT Airline Pilots Association (TTALPA), saying, "We are negotiating in good faith." One media house on Thursday reported CAL was offering 7.5 per cent, while TTALPA sought 13 per cent, for 2015-2020.

Otherwise he promised to provide data on CAL's financials early next year, noting a big improvement from 2019-2023, following hard times during the pandemic.

Medera promised to compensate all genuine claims for reimbursement by affected passengers and promised to set up a special portal on its website soon. He expected compensation claims to be handled within seven-14 days of receipt. The portal will stay open for three months. He urged passengers to use it, saying in many cases CAL does not have the contact details of passengers who bought their tickets through travel agents.

For CAL's domestic passengers, he said even those who took up the offer to  travel between Tobago and Trinidad by ferry instead, the airline would refund their airline tickets and issue a credit for future travel.

CAL corporate communications officer Dionne Ligoure said Medera would meet the pilots' association after the briefing on Thursday.