Surinam Airways to link Aruba to Orlando Sanford

A new link between Queen Beatrix International Airport in Aruba and Orlando Sanford International Airport will be launched by Surinam Airways this spring, adding to its previous seasonal services into the Florida airport from Georgetown, Guyana and direct flights from Paramaribo, Suriname that were first introduced in 2015.

The new weekly flight will commence from April 3, 2017 and like Surinam Airways’ previous operation will also provide direct onward service from/to Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport in Paramaribo. The flight will be operated by a Boeing 737-300 with 126 seats (eight Business Class and 118 Economy Class).

"Our customers are going to be thrilled about the advent of weekly flights from Orlando Sanford to the beautiful island of Aruba! It's vacation time!" said Michael Caires, marketing and public relations manager, Orlando Sanford International Airport on the sidelines of the Routes Americas air service development forum in Las Vegas, USA this week.

Orlando Sanford is only the second US airport currently served by Surinam Airways, adding to its historical flights into Miami, a destination it now serves non-stop from Aruba, Georgetown and Paramaribo. It introduced its flights between Guyana and Orlando Sanford in July 2015 and operated schedules again in summer 2016, although no non-stop availability is currently displayed for summer 2017.

According to data from intelligence provider OAG, Aruba is already directly linked to Miami by American Airlines, Aruba Airlines and Surinam Airways; Fort Lauderdale by JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines and Orlando International by Southwest Airlines. Air capacity between Aruba and Florida has been on the rise over this decade, albeit it fell by almost a fifth (-18.3 per cent) in 2016, but still remained at its second highest level this decade.

Richard Maslen

Richard Maslen has travelled across the globe to report on developments in the aviation sector as airlines and airports have continued to evolve and…