I travel multiple times through the year to the island. After the November 15 soft opening of the new departure area, the arrival area has suffered. I arrived on Thursday, November 23 on WestJet from Toronto at 2:55 PM Unfortunately, we did arrive after Air France, Delta, JetBlue and a Spirit flight. The majority of passengers from the flights are still being loaded onto buses to take you to the arrival area, which has changed since November 15. Passengers were loaded into isles of waiting areas underneath a covered area with no air conditioning. After not moving for 30 minutes, someone was having a discussion with an airport employee, and it was determined if you did not have check on luggage, you could proceed directly to immigration. That was my case as well. So I proceeded past hundreds of passengers directly to immigration. Once inside immigration, which is the same area as before the change, Things moved along much quicker. To summarize, if you don’t have check on bags, ask or proceed directly to the immigration area.
There needs to be far more organization and training for the arrival area and staff. Just basic stuff so that passengers and vacationers don’t feel herded like sheep Into an area where they have no idea what’s going on and they are standing still for an hour or more. If there is a positive to the soft opening, the departure area seems to be working OK. My guests who left the same day I arrived had no issues going from entry of the airport to the second floor departure gate in roughly 15 minutes. I don’t want to be negative, I would rather be positive, so I am hoping for this to be resolved, and this is a temporary issue.
