From the AHATA June report:
“Traffic from the USA was up by 9.7%, from 50,504 stopovers in May 2016 to 55,387 stopovers in May 2017. Traffic was up by 30.4% from Massachusetts, up by 15.0% from Pennsylvania, up 5.1% from New Jersey and up 4.9% from New York State. Arrivals from Florida showed a 31.6% increase linked to the new daily JetBlue service from Fort Lauderdale which was introduced in January 2017.”
So you already know that the island had a good Spring and is looking forward to a decent Summer because Jet Blue flies in daily, out of Fort Lauderdale, delivering butts into beds.
Elementary my dear Watson = More air seats equals more-better tourist season!
Aruba has been courting American Airlines, JetBlue and other airlines for more air seats for a long time. In fact, since the beginning of time. But the airlines have a standard response: If you shell out some dollars, to mitigate the risk we’re taking, we’ll consider the flight.
Sometimes the price tag is too high and we cannot afford it.
But sometimes the price is right, as in the current JetBlue case, then the partners may say: “Let’s do it.”
Last year, president Obama relaxed the sanctions against Cuba and the whole world predicted Cuba will explode; Cuba will become a major tourist draw, a powerful competitor within the Caribbean. Then with the new President and talk about a travel bans, nothing happened, especially for Cuba, almost nothing happened.
So at the beginning of the year, or maybe t the end of last year, JetBlue said YES to Aruba. It augmented its fleet of planes in anticipation for Cuba to open up wide; the company had the planes, but Cuba was an unsure thing, and Aruba was knocking on the door, persistently.
Wow, it was a total success and Ronella Tjin Asjoe Croes told me they are talking to JetBlue about another flight, even more air-seats, a second flight. That’s good news.
Credit for this opportune JetBlue win-win goes to the CEO of ATA, and her team, she insists; she pushed and went back to them relentlessly, until they said OK, we’re coming to Aruba, just get off our backs!!
