The Richter Scale^®

A few days ago, Air Jamaica announced that as part of their on-going cost cutting measures, they would be cancelling all of their flights to the island of Bonaire (where I and my family live) as of August 28th, and that three of their weekly four flights would end at the end of June, meaning that in July and August there would only be one weekly flight, on Saturdays.

As an island with 11-12,000 residents, and maybe a thousand tourists a week, as well as being as far away from Jamaica (or the U.S. for that matter) in the Caribbean without bumping into South America, Bonaire generally has not rated high in the priority queue for flights from elsewhere, and this move by Air Jamaica, which is struggling for survival is no different.

The only bright bit of sunshine is that American Eagle has picked up the slack, and starting July 2nd, will be adding two more weekly flights to/from San Juan, Puerto Rico, resulting in daily flights. Of course, folks at http://www.BonaireTalk.com and elsewhere have been grousing about the fact they have to leave Bonaire at the crack of dawn and they arrive late at night by using American Eagle, but for those of us living there and traveling off-island, it means we can make it to our destinations by mid/late afternoon. The daily flights on American Eagle last through early September, at which point the schedule drops to four flights weekly (although if traffic is high, more flights may be kept on schedule).

One argument typically proferred by local experts for how to increase flights to Bonaire is to increase the number of available rooms on the island, but that only works if the airlines servicing you are financially sound and the price/value equation is acceptable to the tourist wanting to visit the island. Seeing as all the carriers who service the Caribbean are in dire financial straits, it’s not hopeful that even more rooms on Bonaire would increase the air traffic to the island.