Cautionary Tale - Provo International Airport

Warning! The Providenciales International Airport is the most chaotic and disorganized airport I have ever been through. Leave EXCESSIVE amounts of time to board your plane.

After grabbing a quick breakfast, my family and I returned to the condo to await our cab to the airport. Which didn't show up. So we called for another cab. We then stopped to fill the van with pickups at a few other resorts. I wasn't too worried s it was a small airport and there couldn't be too many large, international flights leaving simultaneously.


We arrived with more than the requested time (2 hours for international) and headed to the check in counter. The line wasn't too long, but was extremely slow moving. I was fairly amused by the line for the domestic flight beside us as almost everyone in the line was madly scrambling to repack bags, had a lot of prohibited items, generally seemed new to flying, and had arrived less than an hour before their flight. The attendants at the counters were endlessly patient and helpful.


Anyways, we got our bag tags and boarding passes and were off to the security "line" - a blob of people somewhat linear toward a set of sliding doors. Turns out there is one x-ray and screening machine at the airport. For all flights.


We made it through the sliding doors to find a room completely packed with passengers and no AC Or moving air. As we inched along, there was a constant drove of passengers being paged "last call" for their flights - but there was really no where else to go but the insanely long line. Then we noticed large crowds of people presumably from the domestic flight mentioned before and the last call folks bypassing the line along the wall and crowding the one security gate.

Because these passengers were prioritized, we then began hearing our names being called over the intercom - us and about 30 others still in the security line. We told the one airport guard that we were being "last called" and he told us not to worry, until the people behind us on our flight were rushed through the line. We asked again and were allowed under the velvet rope but placed in line behind 10 or 15 domestic flight passengers in the "priority" blob.


Finally making it through (and not very thoroughly screened at all!) we made a mad dash for the gate and across the tarmac for the flight. A couple of runway personnel shouted that there was no need to rush - despite being "last called" for about 20 or more minutes! We made it, sweaty and stressed, onto the plane and notice about 40 empty seats for the other passengers stuck in the security line (which I'm pretty sure is Limbo or purgatory).


So I'm fairly certain that the airlines have figured out that excessive "last call" paging is the only way to get people through the line and on their planes anywhere close to on time. Maybe a security upgrade is on the horizon, but for now, you'll either need at least 1.5 or2 hours for security at high volume times, or the airline to persistently and terrifyingly page you with "your flight is now departing".
A very relaxing way to end your vacation in beautiful Turks and Caicos.