LIAT dismisses claims that check-in scales may be fixed

Desmond Brown, Corporate Communications Manager of regional airline LIAT, has dismissed as ‘frivolous claims’ allegations that the scales at their check-in counters may be fixed.{{more}}

The Antigua based manager told Searchlight in a telephone interview on Wednesday that the notion that the scales may be tampered with as a means of generating revenue is ‘nonsensical’ and does not warrant a response.

“The more I think of it… I don’t think this is serious. It can’t be.”

The brief interview was the follow up to an email sent to Brown by SEARCHLIGHT after a number of persons returning to St. Vincent from the United States complained of being told that they were overweight when they checked in at the LIAT counter in Barbados on their way to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

One traveler, who came home for celebrations to mark the Girls’ High School’s Centenary anniversary earlier this month, indicated that she was told that her luggage was overweight by exactly three pounds.

“At the airport in New York/ JFK on their scale, it was 49.2 pounds, and then when I got to Barbados it was 52.2, so I said ‘Don’t even try it’ and he [the LIAT agent] laughed and said ‘We won’t charge you.’”

Another LIAT passenger said that she and a gentleman had the same issue on an earlier trip to St. Vincent from the U.S via Barbados. In that case, their suitcases were exactly two pounds over what was registered at the American Airlines check-in counter.

“I had two suitcases and I said to the LIAT man ‘This is uncanny’… it is too obvious and too consistent to be coincidence. It is too suspicious.”

The women said that the incidents remind them of a strategy that they say some business persons use to increase revenue.

“Business people are known to adjust their scales so that the more poundage it is, it’s the more money they make.”

“Something is wrong with their (LIAT) scales. You can’t have everybody scales wrong and LIAT is just right. Something is wrong.”

Brown, who said that he spoke to the Station Manager of the LIAT counter in Barbados, questioned the trustworthiness of other scales over those of LIAT.

“Why is it that the scales at American must be okay and it has to be the scales by LIAT must be wrong?”

He read a part of the letter from the Barbados station manager which said: “This is the first time I have heard of this. The scales at Grantley Adams are calibrated every six months by an independent organization known as the Barbados National Standards Institute.”

“It is mandated by LIAT for weight and balance purposes and we keep records in the station….”

He indicated that he himself had never heard of any such allegations before, and noted that all complaints are handled by the company’s Customer Relations Department (customerrelation@liatairline.com).

Weighing in on the issue was Ezra Ledger, head of the local Standards Bureau, which is responsible for verifying the LIAT scales here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who said that to date, they have not found a major problem with the scales.

“Once we have detected any sort of deviation from the tolerance level, we normally would write a report to LIAT indicating whether the scales are reporting under or over and they would make the necessary adjustment.”

Ledger indicated that the scales here are also verified every six months, and should there be need for adjustment, this is done by LIAT, through technicians based in Puerto Rico.

The head of the bureau said that his concern is that there is no ‘sliding scale’ where passengers who are overweight pay according to how much they are over by, instead of the flat fee of US$60, which is the current rule.

“It’s grossly unfair that people are not being charged by what they are overweight by… because you are offering a service per weight, and for me, that is kind of unfair for the consumers.

Ledger noted that the accuracy of the scales is not only important for trade, but also for the safety of the aircraft and passengers, since lower readings could result in a heavier payload on the aircraft.

Ledger said that he had not received complaints on the overweight issue here, but said that if there are such concerns, they should be made to his offices so that investigations could be done.