Safety concerns and handling company strike affected Fly Jamaica flights

According to the airline, "an ongoing strike by ground staff of Swissport Canada Handling Inc.— Fly Jamaica Airways’ contracted handling company at Pearson International Airport in Toronto— continues to adversely affect the operations of all airlines they service and have resulted in ramp congestion and significant delays in the offloading of baggage and deplaning of passengers upon arrival at Pearson."

Safety concerns and handling company strike affected Fly Jamaica flights

Fly Jamaica Airways is extending apologies to all of its passengers affected by the irregular operations which started on August 3, 2017.

In a statement, the airline said while the delays are regrettable, it remains committed to making safety its first priority.

The airline explained that it was forced to ground its Boeing 767 on Thursday, August 3rd prior to departure from Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston. That grounding may have been as a result of some safety concerns before take off.

“After safely returning to the gate, passengers were fed onboard before being transferred to the airline’s Boeing 757 aircraft”, Fly Jamaica said.

That problem was compounded by external factors at the ports where Fly Jamaica Airways operates in and out of daily.

According to the airline, “an ongoing strike by ground staff of Swissport Canada Handling Inc.— Fly Jamaica Airways’ contracted handling company at Pearson International Airport in Toronto— continues to adversely affect the operations of all airlines they service and have resulted in ramp congestion and significant delays in the offloading of baggage and deplaning of passengers upon arrival at Pearson.”

Additionally, at the JFK International Airport in New York, prolonged baggage screenings and checks being conducted by the U.S. Customs & Border Protection on all flights out of Jamaica and Guyana, have added several hours onto the turn around times, causing additional delays.

The airline said disruptions to its scheduled service to and from Toronto are expected to continue to some degree as long as Swissport Canada Handling Inc. continues to strike at Pearson International. The airline hopes to have its service back on schedule by this coming Thursday.

 

-For updated flight schedule information please visit www.fly-jamaica.com and click on the “Customer Advisory: Updated Flight Schedule” banner at the top of the page. All flight schedule updates will be published.-

 

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