Although ferry tickets have been sold out for this month’s Tobago Carnival, the Port Authority of T&T (PATT) is promising to add more sailings to meet the demand.
From October 23-29, approximately 17,000 people are expected to arrive in Tobago on the seabridge.
PATT chairman Lyle Alexander yesterday said the Inter-Island Transport Service is prepared to handle the load in the coming days. There are eight sailings on the APT James, nine on the Buccoo Reef and three on the Galleons Passage.
The Buccoo Reef accommodates 1,000 passengers, the APT James 926 passengers, while the Galleons Passage carries 400 passengers. In total, the seabridge is expected to carry 17,608 passengers to Tobago over seven days.
“We have prepared for it and we are ready to move the passengers as required to the best of our ability,” Alexander said.
“In terms of preparation, we are preparing to take full loads each day and if you look at last year’s figure, you’ll see we took on full loads as well.”
He said it was difficult to make a comparison with the same period last year.
“At this stage of the game, the bookings look the same. The numbers look good, just as the same as last year but to know if we moved more or less I would suggest we wait until after Carnival to determine exactly how many we moved.”
Alexander added: “The other reality is for all kinds of reasons. people will not travel on the given days and it’s very likely that notwithstanding all the sailings are showing sold out right now, there may be walk-on passengers who may be able to get on the ferry to Tobago. We’ll wait and see to compare the statistics.”
He said a decision on additional sailings on specific days will provide approximately 2,700 more seats over the Carnival period.
Last year, the PATT added two additional sailings on the seabridge seven days before the Carnival. There were an additional 3,900 seats on the Buccoo Reef and 3,704 seats on the APT James.
