American Airlines and American Eagle will be making more cuts to the company’s San Juan operations with an additional five route cancellations from April 2011.
Four Caribbean destinations – Anguilla, La Romana, Port-of-Spain and Puerto Plata – are among the latest to be chopped from the airlines’ schedule. Also to be dropped from the schedule is Washington Dulles.
The planned reductions, including five which were announced in September to also take effect on April 3, 2011, will leave American Airlines and American Eagle with a combined 36 daily flights, down from 58 at present, as they pull back their once-huge Caribbean operations.
American spokeswoman Martha Pantin said the company has no estimate of the number of employees to be affected by the schedule changes.
“We regret that these changes will affect AA and Eagle employees in San Juan,” she said. “We are currently working to determine the exact number of positions impacted, but will do everything possible to offer affected employees the opportunity to relocate or bid for vacancies elsewhere in the company.”
American launched its Caribbean service in 1971 when it bought Trans Caribbean Airlines. It opened a connecting hub in San Juan in 1986, growing it by 2001 to 135 flights operated by American and American Eagle.
