By LEISELLE MARAJ Monday, December 21 2009

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DELAYED: A television screen at Piarco International Airport shows flights to New York and Toronto being delayed. A major snowstorm which has blankete...

TRINIDADIANS in New York who planned to return to this country over the weekend remained stranded after a major snow storm, which dumped up to 18 inches of snow in the New York City area on Saturday, resulted in a delay in flights between New York and Piarco International Airport in Trinidad.

Locals who expected to travel to New York from Piarco yesterday crowded the airport’s departure terminal awaiting news of their flights on local carrier, Caribbean Airlines (CAL) and US based Delta Airlines, which operate on the airbridge between New York and Trinidad. The snowstorm, which affected parts of north-eastern United States, also caused cancellation of hundreds of flights and delays in remaining flights.

Gopaul Rickie, who was scheduled to leave on a Delta Airways flight from Piarco to the John F Kennedy Airport (JFK) in New York on Saturday afternoon with his family, said they were told that they would be accommodated on a flight at 4.15 pm yesterday.

“This is real hardship. No one called us to tell us of the delay and we left Penal to get here to check-in for our flight at 2 pm yesterday (Saturday) only to be told that we would not be leaving then. No one was able to tell us when we would be given another flight and we had to keep calling and calling for information when we returned home.

“It was only when we contacted the Delta Airlines office in the United States we were told what was going on and that we would be able to get a flight this (Sunday) afternoon,” he told Newsday in an interview at Piarco.

Another traveller, who sat with her family on the curb outside of the terminal, said they were supposed to be on a flight to JFK aboard a Caribbean Airlines aircraft taking off at 11.30 am yesterday but they were informed that the flight was delayed when they arrived at Piarco to check-in earlier yesterday morning.

“They told us that it was snowing and the plane could not leave New York. They told us we should get a flight to New York at 5 pm,” she said.

In an online interview, Kyle Jeremiah, a Trinidadian attending the College of Staten Island in New York, who was supposed to return home today for a month long vacation, on a Delta Airlines flight from JFK, said he found out his flight was cancelled when he checked its status online.

He said when he contacted the airline yesterday morning, he was informed that there were no flights leaving JFK yesterday and the earliest flight back to Trinidad would be available on December 27. He said while the snowstorm has ended, there is still at least two feet of snow on the ground. “I am stressed out because my initial flight was cancelled, I was not formally contacted and because I am forced to try to get another flight before Saturday. I’m completely livid! The timing couldn’t be worse. I have a wedding to attend on Boxing Day so I’d like to be in the country at least a few days in advance,” he said.

Caribbean Airlines, on their website, issued a travel advisory to their passengers advising of delays to one flight between JFK and Piarco on Saturday and two between Piarco and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Guyana and two between JFK and Piarco yesterday due to inclement weather.

When contacted yesterday afternoon , Laura Asbjornsen, the airline’s Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager, told Newsday that all flights from JFK were delayed at that moment pending further updates from that airport. “We would not be able to give any other information as all amenities are frozen and we have to wait unfortunately,” she said.