I write in response to a letter to your newspaper by L. Small, titled 'Airport nightmare', which was published on February 23.

The facts are that the flight on which the writer travelled to Jamaica on Tuesday, February 3, was delayed. Sky Service flight 5G 830 from Toronto, Canada, was scheduled to arrive at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) at 11:05 a.m. but did not arrive until 2:05 p.m. The aircraft had 184 passengers on board.

Just minutes prior to the arrival of that flight, JM 016 from JFK arrived at NMIA at 2:04 p.m. with 112 passengers and AA 1735 from Miami arrived at 2:02 p.m. with 193 passengers.

Huge bottleneck

The delay in arrival of Sky Service, as you can imagine, led to a huge bottleneck in the processing of passengers by the airport immigration service between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. According to our records, L. Small was processed at 3:12 p.m. and not at 4:50 p.m. as his/her letter suggests. We can assure you that the officers who were on duty managed the system to the best of their ability under the circumstances.

We recognise that in the business of commercial air travel flight delays will occur. The resulting delay in the processing of passengers in many of these instances is unavoidable. However, despite our limited resources, we have and will continue to put measures in place to minimise the distress to travellers.

I am, etc.,

JENNIFER MCDONALD

Chief Executive Officer

Passport, Immigration &

Citizenship Agency

St Mary