The do­mes­tic de­par­ture lounge at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port will be per­ma­nent­ly closed from April 24.

In a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, the Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty said all pas­sen­gers head­ing to To­ba­go will now en­ter the in­tra­na­tion­al gates, which will be re­con­fig­ured in­to "All Gates."

It said this change was made to im­prove ef­fi­cien­cy and align op­er­a­tions with in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dards.

It added that the ap­proach stream­lines pas­sen­ger pro­cess­ing and sup­ports a seam­less trav­el ex­pe­ri­ence.

The Au­thor­i­ty said do­mes­tic pas­sen­gers will now be able to en­joy a wider range of re­tail and din­ing op­tions, but it will not be du­ty-free.

"Trav­ellers will en­joy the con­ve­nience of ex­plor­ing an ex­pand­ed mix of stores, restau­rants, and du­ty-paid shop­ping, with full ac­cess to con­ces­sion­aire of­fer­ings across both the east­ern and west­ern wings, Gates 1 through 14."

The Au­thor­i­ty said the cen­tralised se­cu­ri­ty check­point has been ex­pand­ed with ad­di­tion­al lanes and ad­vanced screen­ing equip­ment to ease con­ges­tion and im­prove flow.

It ad­vised pas­sen­gers to be cog­nisant of the 3-1-1 rule when ap­proach­ing the se­cu­ri­ty check­point. This in­volves lim­it­ing liq­uids, gels, and aerosols in car­ry-on bag­gage to con­tain­ers of 3.4 ounces (100ml) or less, all of which must fit with­in a sin­gle, clear, quart-sized, re-seal­able plas­tic bag. These guide­lines ap­ply to items such as wa­ter, toi­letries, and cer­tain foods, any­thing that can be spread, sprayed, or poured, while ex­emp­tions re­main in place for med­ica­tion and ba­by food.

"This trans­for­ma­tion forms part of a se­ries of forth­com­ing changes at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, which will en­hance the pas­sen­ger ex­pe­ri­ence while still en­sur­ing con­tin­u­ing com­pli­ance with in­ter­na­tion­al civ­il avi­a­tion stan­dards and rec­om­mend­ed prac­tices."

The Au­thor­i­ty said it is al­so work­ing to­geth­er with the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, Caribbean Air­lines as the op­er­a­tor of the do­mes­tic air bridge, and all oth­er key stake­hold­ers to en­hance the air­port trav­el ex­pe­ri­ence for all. It said meet­ings will be held with crit­i­cal stake­hold­ers dur­ing the up­com­ing week to ef­fect a smooth tran­si­tion. - Stephon Nicholas