Small arrival, baggage and customs halls at AIA under pressure

The small arrival hall, baggage reclaim, and customs halls at Argyle International Airport are under pressure, eight years after the airport began operating.

The government has spoken about expanding the area, saying that this is an indication of the success of the airport.

However, some travellers have said that it showed a lack of foresight, noting that the passengers from a  Boeing 737 MAX 8 — such as those used by American Airlines and which typically carries 172 passengers — and their hand luggage can hardly fit in the arrival hall.

Ahead of the opening of the airport in 2017, the government said that it was designed to handle between 800 and 1,000 passengers an hour.

The terminal building has 135,000 square feet of space on three floors, compared to 20,000 at the former ET Joshua Airport.

However, despite AIA having five times the floor space of the former ET Joshua Airport, some passengers are immediately surprised by the small arrival hall, baggage reclaim and customs halls.

The AIA terminal building, which was completed in December 2013, three years before the airport began operating, was designed “to meet the country’s needs for the next 20 years”.

However, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said recently that the government has to “do some things temporarily” even as Cabinet considers a solution to the situation at AIA.

“I already spoke to a technical person. … on Wednesdays now, when you have four international airlines on the ground at the same time, plus one or two local ones, you have a problem. Already!” Gonsalves said.

Then, on Monday, he told Parliament:

“At the same time, you begin to see some strain at immigration in terms of space. We begin to see some at the area where the bags, the baggage carousel and customs.”

Gonsalves said eight of the 12 kiosks for immigration are staffed.

“At that hour, I’m requesting that more persons be put there, and then for the carousel, for a couple of persons there to be taking off the bags and putting them down.

“Because if four big aircraft come in, by the time you come to immigration, you collecting your bags, like in any airport, you take off some items.”

The prime minister was also critical of customs officers who he said appear to want to search every passenger’s bags.

“I can’t get it sufficiently across that in this modern world, where we deal with customs on the basis of assessment of risks, this tendency for some customs officers to want to search every person, every item. We have to assess risks.”

He said the advanced passenger information system helps with assessing risks.

“And they have that. So, there are ways in which we can move the passengers more, but we are also looking at some alterations to be able to accommodate this increased passenger flow. It is also rich to hear those who opposed me building the airport now saying, I build it too small. Amazing. Eh?” the prime minister told Parliament.