Southwest Airlines has relaunched another nonstop route to the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, Caribbean Journal has confirmed.
The low-cost carrier has officially resumed nonstop service between Orlando International Airport and Aruba’s Queen Beatrix International Airport.
The relaunched service is now operating daily between Orlando and Aruba, according to Southwest Airlines.
It compliments existing service between Baltimore-Washington and Aruba; that service is currently operating once weekly on Saturdays.
Southwest Airlines’ route between Fort Lauderdale and Aruba has still not yet resumed, however. While Southwest was on a broad expansion push to the Caribbean before the onset of the pandemic, especially out of Florida, that growth seems to have slowed in the last two years as competing low-cost carriers, including Frontier Airlines, have massively ramped up their Caribbean networks.
The relaunch is a big boost for Aruba, one of the best performing destinations amid the pandemic. According to a recent report from ForwardKeys shared by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, Aruba is among the most “resilient” destinations in the wider Caribbean, based on confirmed arrivals for the summer.
The new flight service on Southwest Airlines is also indicative of the growing importance to the Caribbean of Orlando, which continues to see more and more routes to the region on a number of carriers.
Aruba has seen particularly strong tourism numbers since the Dutch Caribbean island decided in March to remove all pandemic-era pre-travel testing requirements for travelers.
That means traveling to the island of Aruba is just like it was before the onset of the pandemic, with no negative test or proof of vaccination required.
The move mirrors similar moves by Dutch Caribbean destinations like Saba, Statia and Bonaire, among others.
For more, visit Southwest Airlines.