Airlines

With a traditional water canon salute, the Aruba Airport Authority N.V. (AAA) welcomed KLM back on its first flight from Amsterdam to Aruba. With the return of this service, KLM will connect passengers to and from Aruba with Holland via Curacao.

Air Service

AirTran Airways launched new non-stop service into Aruba in December 2009, with one flight on Saturdays out of Atlanta. Additionally, AirTran Airways launched new non-stop service from Orlando, Florida in January 2010; this marks the first non-stop service from Orlando to Aruba.

JetBlue Airways is increasing its service to Aruba from Boston Logan Airport. Boston will now feature five flights a week, two flights on Saturdays and one flight on Friday, Sunday and Monday. The additional flight will go into effect the spring of 2010.

On February 15, AAA N.V. was awarded 1st prize for Excellence in Airline Marketing at Routes’ Americas Conference in Lima, Peru in the category Central America and Caribbean. AAA was short listed earlier together with Panama City, Montego Bay, Curacao and Port au Prince.

The award adds on to the runner-up status for the whole of the American continent received in 2009 and is the 4th time that Aruba Airport was short listed in 5 consecutive years during the presentation of the annual marketing awards by Routes/OAG.

The awards are based on airlines’ appreciation and reports on the capabilities and approach of individual airports in their efforts to maintain and attract airline service.

“After 4 nominations and receiving 2 times runner-up status in 2007 and 2009, we felt this had to happen now. It is a fantastic success for our marketing team and it shows the airlines’ appreciation for our consistent proactive approach towards our main industry partners. The nominations and awards are an important benchmark for us to monitor how we are doing compared to the competition, since all airports go full swing nowadays to charm the airline industry.” said Peter Steinmetz, managing director of AAA N.V. “It is important to maintain our competitive edge.”

In the picture Head of Airline Marketing Peggy Croes is proudly presenting the award.

Aruba Airport Authority N.V. (AAA) welcomed passengers of AirTran Airways’s first weekly nonstop flight from Orlando to Aruba on Saturday, January 9, 2010. Aruban locals dressed in folkloric costumes handed out island sweets, while greeting arriving passengers at the gate for the inaugural flight.

AirTran Airways’ new nonstop service will now be available every Saturday to connect passengers to and from Aruba via Orlando’s International Airport. AirTran Airways’s aircraft is a B737-700 offering 12 seats in business class and 125 seats in economy class. Tickets can be booked on AirTran Airways’ website at www.airtran.com

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will resume its service between Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Aruba Airport Reina Beatrix on 1 February 2010. The twice weekly service will be operated in combination with the existing Curaçao service.

KLM suspended this service on the 29th March 2009. In response to growing demand on this route, KLM has decided to resume flights between Amsterdam and Aruba. The service will be operated using Boeing 747-400 equipment. KLM and Martinair both operate services to this destination.

“We have seen that customers would like the option of a business class product on flights to and from Aruba. To meet the different demands of our passengers we will operate KLM flights alongside the Martinair service on this route,” explains Peter Hartman, KLM President & CEO.

The flight, number KL0783, will depart from Amsterdam on Mondays and Thursdays at 09:35 hours and will arrive in Aruba at 14.15 hours on the same day. The return flight with the same flight number will depart from Aruba on Mondays and Thursdays at 15:25 hours, arriving in Amsterdam the next day at 08:00 hours.

For more information: KLM Media Relations, Ellen van Ginkel tel: +31 (0)20 649 4545.

Aruba Airport Authority N.V. Securing Additional Boston Service

Aruba Airport Authority N.V. (AAA) has received confirmation of JetBlue Airways’ enhancement of current Boston service to Aruba starting in the spring of 2010. Boston remains a very strong market for the destination and has developed from a primarily seasonal market into a year round key market in the US northeast.

JetBlue Airways has officially announced the increase as of May. It will increase service from Saturday only to five times a week on Friday, two times on Saturday (during the summer peak holidays), Sunday and Monday. Service is nonstop from Boston Logan’s Airport to Aruba onboard A320 aircraft with 150 seats in a one class configuration.

‘Partnerships prove even more valuable during these troubling times’ said Peter Steinmetz, Managing Director AAA. ‘Boston is a very strong year round market for Aruba and the unfortunate cancellation of Boston service from one of our valued air service partners, had us reaching out immediately to American Airlines and JetBlue for assistance. We are committed to work together with our tourism partners to secure the continued demand to Aruba from the Boston region’.

GOL announced that it received permission to operate scheduled flights between Brazil, Venezuela and Aruba from the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) and other relevant authorities. GOL plans to launch the new route, which will be operated by the VARIG brand, on 4 October and will initially operate the flights weekly, on Sundays, using Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircrafts.  Flights will depart Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport at 11:00, arriving in Caracas Venezuela at 15:30, departing at 16:10 and arriving in Aruba at 17:55. Return flights will depart Aruba at 21:20, arriving in Caracas at 22:05, and departing Caracas for Sao Paulo at 22:45. For more information please contact Mr. Hendrik Croes at the Aruba Airport Authority at (297) 524-2424.

The Aruba Airport Authority N.V. (AAA) won the prize for Runner-up for the Global Airport Marketing Award 2009 in the category ‘the America’s’. OAG awards airports in geographical categories, irrespective of the amount of passengers that the airport receives per year.  This result is outstanding and important for AAA for two reasons: First of all, airlines themselves nominate the airports who made a real difference to their own network planning activity over the last 12 months. And secondly, AAA was awarded Highly Commended, being the only Central and South American airport nominated. For more information please contact Mr. Hendrik Croes at the Aruba Airport Authority at (297) 524-2424.

New Service and Capacity Increases

With the summer months comprising the 3rd Quarter period, airlines are indicating overall more passengers per flight as capacity and airfares were reduced. The industry remains very volatile and according to IATA, even though demand for air travel continues to improve, profitability remains ever distant. Aruba Airport Authority N.V. (AAA) 3rd quarter results are reflective of the overall industry reports as both commercial revenue generating passengers (RGP) and air service capacity have increased during the third quarter of 2009.

RGP figures for commercial passengers and flights were up by 2.8% and 1.8% respectively compared to the third quarter of 2009. The following graph illustrates the monthly performance for the third quarter of 2009 compared to 2008 for commercial traffic.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) air fares have stabilized, but at profitless levels. Meanwhile cost pressures are mounting from reduced aircraft utilization and rising oil prices. The industry according to IATA is ‘not out of the woods yet’. US airline capacity changes for Aruba during the third quarter of 2009 were most notable from Delta Airlines, USAirways and JetBlue Airways growing capacity compared to 2008 with 60.0%, 24.8% and 11.8% respectively. In addition, AirTran Airways announced weekly service to Aruba from Atlanta as of December 2009 and Orlando as of February 2010 complimenting air service from the United States to Aruba. With the announcement of Orlando, Aruba has obtained its 13th US gateway a terrific accomplishment for the destination.

As previously indicated booking patterns remain rather short term as consumers are price sensitive and continue to influence the performance of the main tourism market. Airlines have reduced capacity and airfares which creates more passengers on the aircraft but does not reduce the fixed airline costs. The following graph also reflects how effective the various markets are in matching aircraft capacity with demand during the third quarter of 2009 compared to 2008.

‘Traffic figures for the 3rd Quarter sound promising as each individual month showed signs of improvement’ said Peter Steinmetz, Managing Director AAA. ‘Retention of air service, the addition of air service from AirTran Airways and the change of equipment by Copa Airlines are important indicators that our strategies continue to generating positive results. In addition, our marketing efforts have been recognized once again during The World Route Forum and are reflections of Aruba’s strong and prominent presence in the world of Tourism and Aviation’.

After Third Nomination Presented by the OAG (Official Airline Guide) in Beijing

Aruba Airport Authority N.V. (AAA) has received confirmation on the 14th of September, that after earlier receiving its third nomination by OAG, Official Airline Guide, it was awarded the prize for Runner-up for the Global Airport Marketing Award 2009 in the category ‘The Americas”. The gala awards ceremony, where the awards were handed out, took place during the Annual World Route Development Forum in Beijing, China . Representatives of  AAA that attended this Forum and accepted the award were Mrs. Peggy Croes, Head Airline Marketing and Mrs. Barbara Brown, Business Unit Manager Terminal.

OAG awards airports in geographical categories, irrespective of the amount of passengers that the airport receives per year. Aeropuerto Internacional Reina Beatrix didn’t only earn the Runner-up status for the Global Airport Marketing Award, but was also Highly Commended. With that it ended second amongst all North, Central and South American airports.
This result is outstanding and important for AAA for two reasons: First of all, airlines themselves nominate the airports who made a real difference to their own network planning activity over the last 12 months. And secondly, AAA was awarded Highly Commended, being the only Central and South American airport that was nominated sharing the honours in this category competing for the award with Akron-Canton Airport in Ohio, Halifax International Airport in Canada, Seattle-Tacoma and Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport in Texas which came out as number 1. It was the second time since 2007 that AAA received the Runner-up award in its category.

Peter Steinmetz, Managing Director AAA, expressed profound words of satisfaction with this major achievement: “This appreciation perfectly mirrors AAA’s philosophy that airports and airlines work together as partners in developing traffic and the award reflects directly  the positive improvements and changes at the company and solidifies Aeropuerto Internacional Reina Beatrix as a leading airport in the world of aviation. The fact that we have been nominated 3 times now over the last 4 years and received the Runner-up award twice speaks for itself on the quality and perseverance of our marketing staff and efforts. It is really outstanding for such a small airport.”  Steinmetz reiterated that “We ensure that our marketing objectives are met through the delivery of service benefiting Aruba as a whole”.