Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter THE AIRLINE industry continues to complain about delays and long queues due to the shortage of immigration officers, which has prompted American Airlines to increase check-in times from two to three hours.
This is to avoid flight delays caused by departing passengers having to queue for an hour before reaching the security checkpoint.
Tom Scarlett, president of the Board of Airline Representatives of Jamaica (BARJ), and manager of Continental Airlines, has called for quicker action by authorities to resolve the problem.
Although the Ministry of National Security last November gave the green light to fresh recruitment of immigration officers, Leighton Wilson, director of immigration, said yesterday: "New officers will not be in place until April or May and we will started training them in April. A total of 45 officers will be recruited and we are negotiating for more."
AIRLINES REMAIN IMPATIENT
But airlines remain impatient. "It really sends a negative signal to the airline and tourism industries. Government has been cooperative but the situation should have been resolved quicker. Given the announcement of recruitment made last year, you have to say this process is taking too long," said Mr. Scarlett.
He agreed with last week's statement by Derrick Smith, opposition spokesman on national security, that former immigration officers now serving in the Jamaica Constabulary Force could be temporarily recalled to make up the staffing shortfall.
The situation, say airlines, is especially acute at Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport, where a bottleneck occurs at the immigration checkpoint for departing passengers. Currently, there are two immigration booths, each with two officers. A new booth has now been made available, but workers have not been assigned.
"The customers are continuing to complain and this gives a bad impression of Jamaica. Almost every day at peak times we have to beg airport officials to wave through passengers ahead of the queue to avoid delays. Sometimes they let us, sometimes they don't. The airport needs to be more user-friendly," said Mr. Scarlett.
But modernisation work at Norman Manley and Donald Sangster International airports, he said, should shorten the queues as more space would allow additional immigration booths and officers.
