British Airways expands its network across the Caribbean and South America this week with the addition of two new routes to Aruba and Guyana.
Elsewhere, the British flag carrier has also made Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago a standalone non-stop destination.
Further details
British Airways‘ decision to fly to Aruba may come as a shock. With only approximately 5,000 roundtrip passengers in 2019 from London Heathrow, Aruba is a small market and a small country in the Dutch Caribbean. Regardless, British Airways will be serving the country from 26 March next year (the day airlines shift to their summer 2023 schedules) on a one-stop basis from London Gatwick via shuttle from Antigua. The flights will depart on a Thursday and Sunday.
BA will also be operating to Guyana’s capital, Georgetown, from 27 March next year on Mondays and Thursdays via Saint Lucia from London Gatwick. Guyana does receive more traffic than Aruba with 9,000 passengers from London, but it is still relatively small.
Both services to the island nations will be operated by the trusty – but massive – Boeing 777-200ER. The jury is out as to whether BA will be able to fill seats close to maximum capacity, but time will tell.
Port of Spain upgrade
Port of Spain is the stunning capital city of Trinidad and Tobago. And BA receives good levels of traffic to the capital. According to the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority, British Airways welcomed approximately 66,000 passengers to travel to and from Trinidad and Tobago.
The route has been delinked and will no longer route via the Eastern Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia from London Heathrow. The update to a nonstop terminator service means that the British flag carrier must believe that the route will perform well.
The change will take effect from 27 March next year and will run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
The oneworld alliance carrier first introduced the Port of Spain connection from Gatwick Airport in March 2007 – 15 years ago.
What do you make of this news from BA? Are you pleased to see them connect to locations that can be unfortunately neglected by major carriers? Comment below!
