Page 49 - AHATA

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.