Page 45 - AHATA

ORANJESTAD – Aruba Airport Authority N.V. (AAA) opened the New Year with all hands on deck to
handle over 25.000 passengers who traveled over the 2-day period, being Saturday January 5th and Sunday
January 6th 2019. According to the official passenger figures from IASA, 14,400 passengers traveled through
the airport on Saturday, and 10,631 on Sunday.

Aruba Airport together with all operational stakeholders were well staffed and prepared for the hectic
weekend. Many operational changes were set in place to help alleviate the peak time congestion, which helped

to expedite the passenger flow. Passengers who arrived to the airport by the usual advised time of 3 hours prior
to departure, were at their gate well ahead of boarding time and could even shop and dine before boarding their
flight.

During the entire peak periods, passengers were timed at all of the airport’s checkpoints, from check-in to the

gate. The maximum times during the heaviest peak periods were just over 2 hours for U.S. bound passengers,
and these wait times lasted for several hours. Despite some very long lines, all of the airport stakeholders were
fully engaged in the operation, and the lines moved quickly. The airport was made aware of an unfortunate

post in Trip Advisor, where a passenger claimed to take 4 ½ hours to get to their flight. At no time during this
past weekend, did conditions at the airport result in such a situation for any passengers. AAA takes this type of
feedback very seriously and immediately conducted further investigation on the matter, as this did not match
any of the observations that were being carried out over the weekend. This investigation revealed that several
of the passengers that missed the subject flight, were registered at local outbound immigration (first point of

entering the terminal) as late as 30 minutes before their departure time, much too late to have any chance of
making a flight to the U.S.

“The airport passenger volumes during this past weekend were quite challenging, and the abundance of great
teamwork and coordination between all parties involved made a big difference. Weekend passenger levels like
we experienced this past weekend are likely to be a new normal for some time ahead, and we are all committed
to keeping up the focus, and continuing to move forward with the necessary investments in the airport that will
give us some better tools to handle the increased passenger volumes in the future.” said AAA CEO Mr. James

Fazio who was very satisfied with the passenger processing during the busiest days of the year. With regards to
the Trip Advisor review, Mr. Fazio commented the following: “The passenger experience is for us of utmost
importance and it’s disappointing for us to hear that a passenger missed his/her flight at Aruba Airport. From

the airport’s perspective, we had all the key players in place to ensure the most efficient passenger handling
possible in this extraordinary situation. Whether it is Super Weekend or not, the travel advice remains the
same: Be at the airport 3 hours prior your flight’s departure time to avoid any inconvenience.