Pan Am "hub" in Aguadilla?
Pan Am to serve 21 cities from Aguadilla in next five years;
Tourism Co. securing weekly charter flights from Boston on GWV International
Pan Am Airlines will begin offering direct service between Aguadilla and Orlando, Fla., May 23.
Its five-year strategy for Aguadilla's Rafael Hernandez Airport calls for Pan Am to provide service to six U.S. mainland destinations (Stanford and Hartford, Conn.; Des Moines, Iowa; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Philadelphia, and Baltimore), three Canadian (Toronto; Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Hamilton, Ontario), and 12 Latin American and Caribbean (La Romana, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; San Jose, Costa Rica; Cancun, Mexico; Caracas, Venezuela; Santiago, Chile, and St. Croix, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands).
Pan Am will be using B727 jets with seating for 149 passengers to the U.S. and international markets and J31 Turboprops with seating for 19 to the Caribbean.
In four years, Pan Am is expected to generate 168 jobs and a payroll of $7.25 million in Puerto Rico. It is also expected to invest $59 million in launching new service and $51.75 million in operational costs.
The Puerto Rico Tourism Co. is also working on securing weekly flights from Boston to Aguadilla via GWV International, a charter company from New England. GWV serves 18 destinations in the Caribbean, including Mexico.
Two GWV executives were in Puerto Rico last week to visit the hotels and paradores on the west coast. If all goes well, GWV could begin serving the island in December.
Both the Pan Am and GWV leads came from the Tourism Co.'s "Porta del Sol" branding campaign for the island's west coast, from Isabela to Guanica.