PRIVATE AIRPLANES AND FEWER PASSENGERS

Fewer passengers in second quarter

ARUBA--Compared to the second quarter of last year, 5 percent less people traveled via the airport of Aruba, but the number of flights increased with 11 percent. Compared with last year, the drop in passengers in the first six months of this year was 9 percent and the number of flights increased with 4 percent.


The number of passengers from the US dropped with 11.5 percent and from Europe with 11.5 percent. The number of passengers from Colombia increased with 14.3 percent and from the Neth. Antilles with 9.6 percent.


Aruba Airport Authority (AAA) indicated that the increase of the number of flights is especially attributed to the increasing number of private-planes via General Aviation. Compared with the second quarter of 2005, the number of private airplanes increased with 74 percent. (Why "private airplanes"? Drug smuggling perhaps? With a nice cut for those who give the "OK" of looking the other way.)


Other reasons for the increased number of flights are that Arkefly increased her flights from Amsterdam, Continental from La Guardia, and Avianca and DAE that also increased their number of flights. Also the launching of Tiara is noticeable in the figures.


Airline Company JetBlue announced that effective September 16th, it will start daily flights from New Yorks John F. Kennedy Airport. AAA hopes that with this airlink, more tourists will come to Aruba this fall. (Keep hoping. In fact start praying!)