BRENT PINHEIRO
[email protected]
Almost 21 months after Trinidad and Tobago closed its borders to scheduled international passenger flights, United Airlines will resume service to Port of Spain today from its base in Houston, Texas.
United Airlines 2353 departs the George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) at 4:25 pm for the just over five-hour long journey to Piarco International Airport. The aircraft is expected to land at 11:47 pm local time.
United is scheduled to run six-time weekly flights from Houston for December, and from January they will drop to a four-time weekly schedule. United will operate today’s flight with a Boeing 737-800W.
There is no word yet on when the airline will resume flying to Port of Spain from Newark, New Jersey.
Meanwhile, JetBlue will resume daily flights to and from Fort Lauderdale on December 21st. JetBlue 921 is scheduled to depart the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) at 11:33 am, arriving at 4:12 pm local time. The total journey time is 3 hours 39 minutes. JetBlue will operate the route using their Airbus A320 fleet. The airline says the service remains subject to change based on local and regulatory restrictions.
JetBlue already operates a four-time weekly service to and from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Canadian Airline WestJet resumes nonstop flights to T&T tomorrow, December 17th. WS2772 leaves the Toronto Pearson International Airport at 11:30 pm and arrives in Port of Spain at 5:53 am. Total flight time is 5 hours 23 minutes. The airline is scheduled to operate two-time weekly flights in December and then fly only on Fridays from January. The route is operated by Boeing 737-800 jets.
And in some other route news, American Airlines will maintain its daily flight to Trinidad out of Miami. The airline was originally scheduled to increase frequency to three-times daily flights to Port of Spain, today.
When Guardian Media reached out for a comment, American Airlines Global Communications Senior Specialist, Brian Metham, said:
“Like many airlines, we publish our schedule 356 days in advance and adjust in response to demand and operational requirements. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve built more extensive schedules then adjusted as necessary approximately 60 days out. While this approach is closer-in than we’ve made these changes in a pre-pandemic environment, it allows us to still provide the best connectivity for our customers without the inconvenience of multiple schedule changes before departure.”
According to their website, American Airlines will increase frequency to twice-daily flights on March 23rd. The route will be operated by AA’s Boeing 737 Max 8s until January 3rd before switching over to Boeing 737-800s.
And KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will continue to service T&T come next year. The airline has added Port of Spain to its 2022 summer schedule and will now fly the triangle route via St. Maarten instead of Barbados (AMS-SXM-POS-AMS) come March 27th, 2022.
KL0787 departs the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport at 9:50 am and after a brief stop at St. Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM), arrives at the Piarco International Airport at 3:45 pm local time. Using the same flight number, the return nonstop flight departs POS at 5:25 pm and arrives in Amsterdam at 8:30 am the next day. KLM will operate the route with an Airbus A330-200 aircraft.
Initially, Trinidad was only supposed to be part of the airline’s winter schedule. The airline currently flies to T&T three-times weekly via Barbados (AMS-BGI-POS-AMS) using an Airbus A330-300 aircraft.
