Friday, May 30, 2008
American Airlines and American Eagle To Cut Caribbean Service
In a continuing round of airline announcements, yesterday American Airlines and American Eagle noted that their San Juan, Puerto Rico hub will reduce daily flights, both originating from San Juan, or from gateways in the continental United States.
American Airlines will reduce flights into San Juan to 18 daily flights, effective September 3, as opposed to 38 it currently flies. At that time, American will no longer offer nonstop, daily service to San Juan from Baltimore/Washington, Fort Lauderdale, Newark, Orlando, Los Angeles and Washington Dulles. American will continue to offer nonstop service to San Juan from Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York JFK, Philadelphia and Hartford. In the Caribbean, American will no longer serve Antigua, St. Maarten and Santo Domingo with jet service out of San Juan.
American Eagle will also reduce its Caribbean schedule from 55 to 33 daily departures out of San Juan on Sept. 3. The regional carrier will eliminate daily flights from San Juan to Aruba as well as to Samana, Dominican Republic. Both destinations will continue to be served daily from Miami.
American Eagle will continue to serve San Juan with 33 daily flights to the following destinations: Anguilla; Antigua; Barbados; Bonaire; Canouan; Curacao; Dominica; Martinique; La Romana, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Santiago and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Guadeloupe; Nevis; St. Croix; St. Kitts; St. Lucia; St. Marten; St. Thomas; Tortola; and Trinidad.
No cuts will be made in service between Miami and San Juan, and specific schedules will be published shortly, said Peter Bowler. American Eagle’s CEO.
American Eagle also plans to move some of its 66-seat Super ATR-72 turboprops to Dallas and will ground its fleet of 34-seat Saab 340s (the carrier has 26 of these planes).
In a message to employees, Bowler said that “the crisis in the airline business is real, and the steps American is taking to reduce its schedule are necessary.” (Source: Travel Weekly)
