When asked to comment on the success of the Summer Sellabration promotion launched to fill the United flight from Houston to Bonaire during the month of September, Javier Alija of United Airlines Latin America Network Planning said, “you guys are doing an awesome job and the flight is booking very well!”
With two weeks to go before the first flight operates, load factors are averaging in the mid-seventy percent range on the four inbound flights from Houston. The first three rotations of the month are operated on a 737-800 aircraft (20 Premium / 132 Economy) and the last one is on a smaller 737-700 (12 Premium / 106 Economy). Based on the advance bookings, to date there are 441 passengers traveling on the flight in the month of August.
With the Newark flight not operating in September and the Delta flight historically booking at 94% – 96% for the month, it is safe to say the vast majority of these passengers represent incremental traffic for the island and incremental revenue for the island’s tourism sector. A big “thank you” goes to the 31 entities on Bonaire offering accommodations packages and other specials and are included in the program.