jetBlue inaugural flight to Aruba from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood is welcomed with water canon salute

Aruba – January 4 2016; After announcing its new service from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Aruba’s Queen Beatrix International Airport (AAA) on August 29, 2016,  the inaugural jetBlue flight was welcomed today. From now on the ever growing airline is expanding its daily flights between South Florida and Aruba.

Aruba Airport Authority N.V. (AAA) Air Service Development Manager, Mrs. Jo-Anne Arends said that Aruba’s Airport was very pleased, satisfied and proud to be able to welcome the jetBlue Fort Lauderdale-Aruba flight.

“jetBlue started flying to Aruba in 2006 with flights from Boston and 11 years later jetBlue is one of our largest strategic partners that highly contribute to our tourism industry by bringing in market diversification,” she added.

Mrs. Arends continued by saying that the Aruba team consisting of members from Aruba Airport and Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) have been in negotiations with jetBlue to develop a third strategic gateway to Aruba and to expand the portfolio. “Today we can announce that JetBlue is expanding its weekly service to Aruba with 32 new flights bringing in a total of 230,500 seats which is an increase of 31% in capacity,” she adds. Of Aruba's total 1.22 million stay-over visitors in 2015, the island welcomed a 7.7 percent increase in U.S. travelers. Mrs. Arends further explains that the new route of Fort Lauderdale-Aruba has two objectives. The first is to connect the Florida market with Aruba – as we call it origin and destination traffic – and the second is to strategically connect Aruba with the west – San Francisco and Los Angeles – and also key markets like Hartford, Connecticut and Washington, DC. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood service will provide a third nonstop Aruba gateway and allow for convenient connections from across the growing jetBlue network.

Flights between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Aruba will be operated on the airline’s Airbus A320 aircraft offering the airline's award-winning service featuring the most legroom in coach (b); free Fly-Fi, the fastest broadband internet in the sky (c); complimentary and unlimited name-brand snacks and soft drinks; free, live DIRECTV® programming,100+ channels of SiriusXM® radio at every seat and free first-run Hollywood movies.

jetBlue has 11 weekly flights to Aruba from Boston where the island dominates the market with the highest capacity in the Caribbean. Besides that it has 14 weekly flights from JFK and seven flights from Fort Lauderdale to Aruba.

This is the latest in a series of announcements from jetBlue regarding new service at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood where the airline is the largest carrier and where it intends to grow to up to 140 daily flights in the coming years. Already this year, jetBlue has added or announced new nonstop destinations including Nashville, Tenn., New Orleans, San Diego, Barbados, and Quito, Ecuador. Later this week, jetBlue will launch service to Santa Clara, Cuba, the first of four Cuban cities the airline tentatively plans to serve from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, subject to receipt of government operating authority. 

Aruba’s expanded partnership with jetBlue will continue to raise the island’s tourism to new heights. jetBlue currently serves Aruba from its New York-JFK and Boston focus cities with daily flights. It also offers weekly Mint flights seasonally from both airports, which feature the airline’s successful premium service with lie-flat seating and tapas style dining.