Puerto Rico Seeks to Revive Direct UK Flights

Puerto Rico is hopeful it can regain a direct air link with the UK by 2016, its tourism chief has revealed.

The island has been without a UK flight since short-lived attempts by Virgin Atlantic and British Airways ended. BA began flying via Antigua in 2011, only to drop the service in April 2013.

Speaking at the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association Marketplace, Ingrid Rivera Rocafort, executive director of the government-run Puerto Rico Tourism Company, said there were efforts being made to reinstate a service.

A delegation is visiting Routes Americas 2015, a route scheduling conference, in Denver next week. “We are confident we can get it back before 2016,” she said. Rocafort added that the carrier “would not be Virgin” but declined to comment further.

Puerto Rican officials believe they can establish the island as an entry point for the Caribbean from Europe, taking traffic from Miami, where transiting often involves long queues for immigration and security.

Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the US and visitors need an Esta to fly there, but its airport is a mini hub for many Caribbean routes. The airport, which was recently privatized, has just completed a $130 million renovation and has spare capacity.

“We’re working to make Puerto Rico an air transit hub,” said Rocafort. “We want to make it easy and quick for passengers - at Miami you have three hours of going through immigration and customs, we have the infrastructure to do it quicker.”

The UK accounts for a fraction of Puerto Rico’s visitor numbers - 4,400 out of 4.4 million, although this does not include the cruise visitor traffic - San Juan can handle up to six vessels a day in its port and has ship visits every day of the week, receiving 1.6 million cruise ship passengers a year.

The island will add another 2,000 hotel rooms this year, including its first Four Seasons property.

Source: TTG Digital