American Airlines Launches Bonaire Flights, Plans Expansion

By Alexander Britell

American Airlines officially launches its first-ever flights to Bonaire this weekend, with plans for more.

The carrier will also be adding flights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from Dec. 15 through March 30, 2019.

That’s along with the Saturday flight that launches June 9.

The Bellafonte Bonaire boutique.

The American flight will leave Miami on Saturdays at 12:05 PM, arriving in Bonaire at 4:13 PM local time. The return flight will depart Bonaire at 5:05 PM, arriving in Miami at 7:15 PM.

The move comes after the performance of the Saturday flights is “booking extremely well,” according to a statement from the Tourism Corporation Bonaire.

The raw landscape of Bonaire.

“We are extremely pleased to have reached an agreement with American Airlines to provide additional non-stop service to Bonaire,” commented Maurice Adriaens, Director of Tourism Corporation Bonaire. “They are confident that the extra flights will do well. These flights will to allow us to generate more traffic to the island concurrent with the expansion of our hotel and villa inventory.”

At Sea, Bonaire, the island’s destination eatery.

TCB said the bookings for the Saturday flight thus far had been concentrated from Miami, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Charlotte.

It all adds up to a significant boost for the Dutch Caribbean island, which is best known for its remarkable marine offerings but has increasingly put itself on the map of late in areas like food and adventure sports.

The Delfins Beach Resort.

The island also added a very sleek new boutique beach resort, the Delfins Beach Resort.

“Tourism Corporation Bonaire is very excited about this opportunity and we look forward to continue to build a long term partnership with American Airlines,” TCB said in a statement.