Caribbean Airlines adds 3,000 seats to domestic airbridge for Tobago Carnival 

Trinidad and Tobago: Caribbean Airlines has added more than 3,000 seats to the domestic airbridge due to Tobago Carnival. Hundreds of masqueraders have showcased their disappointment with the flight, but the seats will make them take part in the festival, as announced by Chief Secretary Farley Augustine.

Bandleaders had also raised an alarm over the past week and noted that they had paid for costumes but had not flights to Tobago. Many warned of severe financial fallout, including possible refunds and cancellations if the issue was not resolved before the October 25–27 celebrations.

CEO Augustine said the matter was treated urgently. “I must say thanks to Minister (Davendranath) Tancoo and the board. I did some intervention on the matter. I think just over 3,000 seats were added, 3,000 plus seats were added,” he told reporters yesterday after the handover of sargassum seaweed equipment from the United Nations Development Programme at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex.

“A release will go out later today, but the bandleaders were able to secure the seats for their bands. I think they are now paying for their tickets and so on, because there are bandleaders who had masqueraders without flights to the island.”

As per the official release, around 3,200 additional seats will be added into the Cabin of the Caribbean Airline. It will be supplementing the ex18,792 seats to get to the island for the Carnival season.

The new flights were loaded into CAL’s booking system between Monday night and Tuesday morning. The move comes after public criticism of the airline and concerns that the lack of flights would have a negative impact on Tobago Carnival, one of the island’s growing economic attractions.

Augustine said the intervention began weeks ago.

“We did not meet physically. So, I wrote Caribbean Airlines since last month. But I wrote the minister since last month, before he presented the budget. So we just followed it up with telephone calls,” he said.

CAL had been under pressure from the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) and tourism stakeholders for not planning enough flight capacity for the event, despite forecasts showing increased travel demand.

Augustine made it clear that the THA does not want to solve Tobago’s airlift problems on a case-by-case basis anymore. He said a permanent system must be put in place to handle high passenger traffic during peak seasons.