AMERICAN EAGLE (AE) will be discontinuing its non-stop service between San Juan and Barbados on April 5.
This was confirmed last Friday evening by American Airlines’ (AA) director of corporate communications for Latin America and the Caribbean, Martha Pantin.
She said this plan was announced on September 24, 2010, but AE is in talks with the Barbados Government about whether the service can be reinstated in the future.
Pantin noted AA will be continuing its serviceout of Dallas/Fort Worth airport along withnon-stop flights to New York and Miami.
She noted that AE had made some “scheduling adjustments” and was now concentrating on major cities in the United States.
However, Barbados Travel Agents Association president Ann Sealy told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that no official announcement had been made to travel agents but they noticed thatthe American Eagle option was not appearing when they tried to book flights after a certain date.
She said over the years the service had been reduced from seven flights a week to the current three and noted that the route had become unprofitable since the cost of fares made “flying to San Juan prohibitive”.
“It’s cheaper to travel to New York or Miami,” she said, recalling when people would go to Puerto Rico for shopping trips or Easter breaks.
However, she said the discontinuation of the service “will be painful for people who want to pick up cruises in Puerto Rico”.
“They will now have to go via Miami [on American Airlines] or travel on LIAT,” she said.
Last October when it was announced that AA was preparing to significantly scale back its Eagle service to the southern Caribbean, Barbados country director Wellesley Joseph had given his assurance that the cuts would not affect the Bridgetown route.
“Barbados has nothing to do with this. Some islands may have flight reductions or changes . . . but it does not affect Barbados.
“As a matter of fact, there is only growth planned for Barbados. There is no reduction,” he had said.
