We should aim to deliver the best service at AIA

Editor: Last Friday, January 20, it was with great anticipation and pride that I excitedly boarded the vehicle enroute to the Argyle International Airport. Having learnt just the day before that it was the public’s last opportunity to do so, I halted everything in an effort to make my maiden voyage. But it wasn’t really my maiden voyage, as I used any opportunity when a family or friend visited from overseas, to journey to the airport site. My very first visit was on one of these occasions.

My most outstanding visit prior to Friday’s would have been in December of 2015. A friend was going back to New York after the holidays, and with limited time left before her departure, we made a dash for the AIA. I was in the company of three lovely ladies and one [I guess I better say, handsome] man. To say the least, we had a blast, as we explored the parameters, and for me, dream of the day when I could board a plane headed straight to the USA, to visit my son! A photo taken on that occasion became my WhatsApp’s profile pic and stayed up for months. The caption read, “Throughout history, a generation would have paved the way for other generations to come!”

The photograph, which was also featured amongst my limited Facebook photos, was met with curiosity and compliments. Bear in mind, the majority of which came from Vincentians in the diaspora. Apart from how well they thought I looked, the piercing question was “which airport is that?” As one looks, the name of the airport is really not that clear because of the angle of the photo. Having returned from London less than three months prior to taking the photo, there were those who thought it was at a foreign airport and others guessed/knew it was the ARGYLE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT!

Amidst the criticisms, I would like to congratulate the Government for taking on such a mammoth task during the economic tsunami at home and around the world and seeing it through. I have learnt from my own experiences that if you wait to have the money to do the things you would like to do, they may never get started, much more get done. So, the AIA is here and here to stay, even when all of us alive today are long gone! It is now OUR airport!

But I have always had a concern, only to have realized it on my recent visit. How do we address the poor customer service and unprofessionalism, the rudeness that is so common place among and with us, Vincentians, particularly in the workplace and on our streets? In this case, at the AIA in particular? I was appalled by the arrogance that was displayed by one of the tour guides, from beginning to end. Even though we were told in the introduction … “this is your airport…” many of us there didn’t feel that way at all. As we entered the departure lobby, there was an elderly lady being escorted by one who could have been her granddaughter, and the tour guide saw it fit to tell her to hurry. The snide remarks kept coming. We were told that if staff didn’t have to do the tours, they would otherwise be able to get the tasks done to have the airport ready for opening day. In other words, we were a humbug. As some of us were reluctantly taken to the VIP lounges, we were told by her, that she could get in trouble for taking us there. She even went as far as to have certain socialites lead the way in, so that we were not (according to her) turned away by the people who were in VIP at the time. There was no obstruction, save for the two or three people who were physically in there.

The VIP area is one of the places at the airport where most of us are less likely to ever go to in our lifetime; it was not off-limits on Friday, 20 January. The public visits were our opportunity to have this experience, but frankly speaking, it felt as if we were second-class citizens, intruding into someone’s bedroom. And at the end of the tour, the tour guide pointed out to us where her office is located.

Let me hasten to say that I had never encountered this person before, neither did I know who she was until I enquired. I wrestle with the reality that such a person is at the forefront of customer service at AIA. After all, OUR tax dollars have helped build, and will continue to fund the upkeep, completion and expansion of OUR airport; therefore, no one has the right to make any one of us fellow Vincentians, or visitors who come to our shores, feel unworthy. We are all entitled! So many of us would have lamented at the ill treatment meted out to us at airports in Barbados and Trinidad, in particular. Let us all hold ourselves to a higher standard and aim to deliver the best airport service in the Caribbean.

LaLa London