Tropic Air Flight schedule timing and transfers

[dierenarts]

How much time should you allow between landing at Belize, baggage, customs and making it over to Tropic Air for the last leg to San Pedro?

Also, in mexico it sometimes gets crazy on the return flight requiring more than the standard 2 hours, is that the case in Belize as well?

Koen

 

[Downing]

I'm sure others will chime in here, but in my experience (3 times in the last 4 years, always in the summer) I've gotten through Customs and baggage claim in about 20 minutes, although it can feel like longer since there's a lot of standing around involved. The Tropic counter is a two or three minute walk from where you'll exit Customs/Baggage Claim.

So I guess I'd plan on 45 minutes to an hour just to be safe. On the other hand, I've never flown out of Goldson except to fly home, so I'm not speaking from experience.

As far as the return flight home, 2 hours has always been more than enough.

 

[peterbj7]

However long it takes, and no matter how much delayed your incoming flight may have been, if you are pre-booked on Tropic they will wait for you. They have put on a flight to San Pedro well after hours for just me before now. I can't say whether Maya have the same standards.

 

[jlevine]

I've only been to Ambergris Caye twice, but I'm a bit paranoid about having enough time to connect. So...I allocate 1.5 hours between arriving and my next flight. I have, however, made it through customs fairly quickly each time. In fact, when I got to the Tropic Air counter, the agent told me they would put me on an earlier flight. When I got to San Pedro early, the baggage handler asked me who I was waiting for and called them for me. He got a nice tip for that! I am amazed at how well Tropic Air works. They really understand how to deal with tourists.

 

[cupojava]

We flew on Mayo, and as soon as they had all their passengers, the plane toook off. It was about 30 minutes before the flight was actually scheduled to fly. The guy at the door was running around the airport looking for all the passengers to get them on the plane early, it was surreal coming from the US where airlines could care less if you are on the plane or not.
It took us about 40 minutes to clear customs, no one had anything to declare, so that line was long. We skipped over to the 'declare' line, and said we didn't have anything to declare, chatted with the Customs guy for a minute and walked right on thru. Nothing to it.

 

[diverrex]

It's been a few years since I've flown Tropic. Then they didn't care much about your baggage, whatever you had they threw onto the plane without weighing it. Does anybody know if they are enforcing their published baggage guidelines?

 

[peterbj7]

You suggest that Tropic are reckless in how they treat baggage. The truth is very far from that. First of all they don't "throw" your baggage onto the plane - they stow it in a separate luggage hold, where it is secured so it can't move around in the event of unusual plane angles. Secondly they don't need to weigh the baggage any more than they need to weigh the passengers - the pilot knows what has been loaded and can estimate pretty well what it will weigh. The Cessna 208 Caravans they use are very tolerant of high loads, and I have never known a pilot have any problems taking off or landing caused by excess weight. There is a rule that passengers sit forward to aid in balance, but even then I've been on a 208 where the pilot and I were up front and there were four other people all in the rearmost seats. There were no issues with take off or landing.

Tropic are very accommodating in the baggage they will carry, and I have never heard of anything which can physically be fitted in being refused. This is why I always say that anything you can carry on any international flight will be carried by Tropic. But this is not at the cost of endangering the aircraft. I am not aware if they have ever declined to take certain items as they are too heavy. I do know that when an aircraft is full of passengers they will often send most of their baggage on a separate flight, but whether that is dictated more by physical space or weight considerations I don't know.

It is perhaps worth mentioning that as well as being a technical dive instructor who has lived here for ten years and frequently used local aircraft, I am also an instrument and aerobatic rated pilot. I also have absolutely no connection to Tropic or their competitors Maya.

 

[CarlosCabanas]

Peter

I believe Diverrex was saying that they didn't care much about the weight and not "the care" of the bags themselves. They don't seem to follow their published weight limits at all. However, if your bag is excessively heavy it may come on a later flight.

cheers,
Carlos

 

[Downing]

I noticed that Maya didn't weigh either of my bags when I flew from Placencia to Belize City last summer. I didn't see any weight limits listed on their website, but I was still concerned that I might have to pay some sort of excess fee as the big bag was right around 50 pounds.

Now whether they "tossed" it on the plane, that I didn't notice.

 

[peterbj7]

I wasn't referring to the way individual items of baggage were treated, but their attitude to baggage in bulk. Sorry if I didn't word it very well. My message is that Tropic (and Maya) take the safety of the aircraft very seriously, and AFAIK do not overload aircraft.