fp Turks and Caicos

Problems with runway repairs at the Providenciales International Airport prompted airport officials to close the airport to flights for about six hours Tuesday, Feb. 23, stranding hundreds of passengers and disrupting flight schedules.

Repairs were made to the runway the previous night as part of the airport expansion, which includes resurfacing the runway, said John T. Smith, CEO of the Turks and Caicos Islands Airport Authority.

“A few of the repairs performed the previous night … were suspect to have shifted,” Smith said. “In the interest of safety, it was deemed necessary to have these repairs inspected in some detail and in some cases redone.”

JetBlue passengers were on the plane ready to take off at 2 p.m. when the airport was closed, and they were deplaned. The carrier had just begun service to the island on Thursday, Feb. 17.

The daily US Airways flight from Charlotte, N.C., was diverted to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, but officials there would not let passengers deplane, said US Airways spokeswoman Liz Landau. So passengers were flown back to Charlotte, where the airline put them up for the night.

On Wednesday (Feb. 23), the airline made an extra flight to take those passengers to the TCI, Landau said.

“There were three flight cancellations (international), eight flights were altered, comprising of two international and six domestic flights and a few private flights,” Smith said.

Flights resumed at 8 p.m., but many passengers who had to spend the night on short notice had trouble finding vacancies.

“Air Turks and Caicos, ground handling company FlightSupport Ltd. and Provo Air Center were all highly impacted by the sudden closure yesterday,” said Deborah Aharon, the companies’ vice president of Business Development.

“Provo Air Center had eight flights stranded on the ground, of which four ran out of crew duty time and had to stay overnight, and five inbound aircraft that had to divert or could not take off. Our staff were very busy finding hotel rooms for crew and passengers as well as trying to keep all our customers advised of the latest developments.”

“However, we commend the air traffic controllers who continued to answer questions patiently despite the constant phone calls, and to Mr. Smith and TCIAA for responding so quickly. Closing the airport was a necessary evil, but they worked diligently to minimize the down time as much as possible.”