EasySky leaves several people stranded in SVG and Cuba

by Lyf Compton

EasySky, the Honduras based airline that had been bringing scores of Cuban shoppers to St Vincent since June, has stopped its flights into the Argyle International Airport (AIA), at least for now.

The airline, which operated twice-weekly flights between St Vincent and Cuba has not landed here in the last three weeks, leaving several people stranded, here and in Cuba.

Additionally, local businesses which had benefitted from the patronage of the Cuban shoppers are wondering what went wrong.

SEARCHLIGHT has confirmed that the airline, which has Vincentian Colin Ash as its Caribbean region representative, has fallen behind in its payments to the AIA.

But a senior official of the AIA, when asked on Wednesday, said he did not know why the airline’s flights had ceased. He, however, confirmed that EasySky owes the AIA, “as do other airlines.”

He declined to say what was the outstanding amount and denied that the AIA had blocked the airline from landing here.

The senior official said the AIA was the midpoint in a Havana, St Vincent, Guyana route, with St Vincent being used as a refuelling point. “I have no reason to believe they will not come back,” the official added.

On Wednesday, a local man, who did not want to be identified, told SEARCHLIGHT that he booked a flight to Cuba for his family of four and was told at the last minute that the flight was cancelled.

The man said he paid EC$6,400 for the flight and should have left St Vincent for Cuba on December 14, but was told, the night before, that the flight was no more.

“We were hearing rumours that they had not landed in a couple weeks, so we were in communication with Colin (Ash) and he was telling us it would be resolved,” said the man, adding that last week Monday, when he spoke to Ash, he was promised that the issue would be resolved in time for him and his family to travel to Cuba, but that never happened.

The man also said that Ash has promised a full refund and although the money has not yet materialized, he is hopeful that he would receive it.

The irate man noted that Ash never told them what the issues with EasySky were.

Reports are that a number of Cubans were in the country when the EasySky service stopped and they had to make alternate arrangements to go home, via other airlines.

The man told SEARCHLIGHT that he was told by one of his Cuban friends that his trip to St Vincent was cancelled by EasySky and he was refunded his money from the carrier’s representative in Cuba.

He added also that several persons had to use the services of Copa Airlines to get back to Cuba or to return to St Vincent after EasySky’s failure to maintain the Cuba/SVG route.

“My issue with them is that we had to be calling for updates and had I not had Colin’s number and message him to find out what was going on, we would have gone to the airport last week Thursday afternoon with all our baggage,” said the family man.

Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Her Excellency Vilma Reyes Valdespino, speaking through her secretary on Monday, said that the Cubans who used EasySky did not come through the Embassy of Cuba, but they came here as tourists, and they know exactly how the airline operates. She also said that the airline is not Cuban, and it has nothing to do with Cuba.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred SEARCHLIGHT to the Ministry of National Security for a comment and the Ministry of National Security referred SEARCHLIGHT to chief executive officer (CEO) at the AIA, Hadley Bourne, who could not be reached for a comment up to press time.

Elsworth John, SVG’s resident ambassador to the Republic of Cuba, was the only Government official willing to speak on the record about the EasySky situation.

“EasySky is going through a period of internal evaluation,” he said, in a telephone interview yesterday, adding that he hoped that flights would resume in the New Year.

SEARCHLIGHT was made aware of the Easy-Sky issue on Sunday, while interviewing businessman Tony Sassine of A&T Store in Kingstown. Sassine said that the discontinuation of the flights has meant that Cubans could not come to St Vincent to shop in December and this has negatively impacted several businesses.

EasySky had marketed St Vincent to Cubans as a shopping destination and offered cheaper flights than the competition. A round trip ticket was sold at US$735, which was discounted to US$500 for students. The airline also offered special rates for persons going to Cuba for medical attention.

Last April, hundreds of Cubans were left stranded in Guyana for several days, after EasySky airline was banned from flying to that country. The Guyanese authorities reportedly grounded EasySky and asked them to correct some of their safety deficiencies. The weight of some of the flights was also in question.

Ash, EasySky’s local representative, could not be reached for comment. Numerous calls to his cell-phone went unanswered.