Overview:
Jacques Etienne, the manager of InterCaribbean Airways in Cap-Haïtien, clarified to The Haitian Times that he did not require travelers to pay an additional fee before boarding, contrary to rumors circulating on social media. However, he mentioned that some passengers might have been frustrated because he asked them to pay for the necessary return flight for their trip to Jamaica.
CAP-HAÏTIEN, Haiti— Last week, social media users accused InterCaribbean Airways of charging passengers an extra $700 before allowing them to board flights at Cap-Haïtien International Airport.
Jacques Etienne, the airline’s Cap-Haïtien manager, denied the claim, explaining that passengers traveling to Jamaica are legally required to have roundtrip tickets. Some, he said, may have been misled by fraudulent travel agencies that failed to provide return flights and overcharged customers. Those without roundtrip tickets were asked to purchase one—typically costing around $700—before boarding, leading to frustration and fueling online rumors of an extortion scheme involving the airline at Hugo Chavez International Airport.
“If you have a visa, you need a roundtrip ticket,” Etienne said. “They only had a one-way ticket, so I asked them to pay for the return flight. That’s an immigration law. You have a visa; you don’t have residency.”
A round-trip ticket to Jamaica from Haiti costs about $1,500, so the return flight would cost about the $700 InterCaribbean asked the passengers to pay for.
According to the Consulate General of Jamaica, people traveling to Jamaica with visas are required to have a return ticket.
Etienne said the agencies helping passengers acquire tickets could also be the culprit of misinformation. Sometimes, agencies cancel return tickets before passengers travel, Etienne told The Haitian Times, leaving room for agencies to commit fraud and pocket the return ticket money. Another common fraudulent scheme Etienne sees is agencies booking flights for people even though they have no proof of necessary visas. For example, Etienne said 17 people tried to travel with fabricated visas to Brazil in December. Some passengers attempting to travel to Jamaica last week also had fake documents. The U.S. Department of State has long warned U.S. travelers of the “many ‘document vendors’ in Haiti that attempt to sell fraudulent documents,” an issue prevalent around the globe.
With more than a third of air travel transactions happening online and across borders, online transactions such as with travel agencies are ripe for fraud with airlines losing about 1% percent of annual online sales to fraud, an approximate 1 billion dollar annual loss According to a study by the International Air Transport Association a global aviation trade association. Sometimes, agencies take money from people and book fake flights for them to only find out after going to the airport. Agencies have been behind multiple scandals at the Cap-Haïtien airport, but this recent issue is a rare one that made its way to social media and local news.
“The agencies are the ones creating the problems,” Etienne said as he stood behind the InterCaribbean desk at the airport.
It is unknown which agency may have been behind the scandal at the Cap-Haïtien airport last week.
The flight to Jamaica last week had 68 passengers, but Etienne did not provide the number of people who could not travel. He did not give the exact date of the flight either. The flight had a layover to Providenciales.
InterCaribbean, a Turks and Caicos-based airline was founded in 1991 to operate on-demand charter flights. As the Turks and Caicos government pursued large-scale development plans, the airline rebranded to expand its service to key international destinations. Today, it operates scheduled flights to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and other locations.
Etienne said that while some frustrated passengers cursed at him and accused him of theft, they did not resort to violence.
Some travel agents also blamed certain agencies for the situation at the Cap-Haïtien airport, raising concerns about their credibility.
“The error came from the agencies,” said Hyppolite Beauvais, a travel agent. “Some people only make one person travel and think they’re an agency but don’t know anything about the travel business.”
Beauvais, who works with Travelco International, Top60, and JKT, suggested that inexperienced or fraudulent agencies were at the root of the confusion.
“The error came from the agencies. Some people only make one person travel and think they’re an agency but don’t know anything about the travel business.”
Hyppolite Beauvais, travel agent
While some Haitians believed the rumors of a gang-influenced scheme with InterCaribbean, travelers with prior experience on InterCaribbean flights disputed the claims. Makenson Cesar, who has used the airline twice for trips to Cuba, told The Haitian Times that his experience had been seamless.
“This is nonsense,” said Cesar, who is in his early 30s. “The agencies are the ones giving problems… I never do tickets through agencies, always with Inter[Caribbean Airways], and everything is always correct. I never give another gourde when I finish paying for the ticket and show my visa.”
Industry observers say the Haitian government needs to implement stronger oversight of travel agencies to prevent similar scandals. Travel fraud has been a persistent issue in Haiti, with agencies allegedly misrepresenting services or charging passengers for flights that do not exist.