I think that people should speak to the Bonaire government about this horrible situation of air transport to the island. No everybody is as devoted to Bonaire as many of the BT'ers and they will go to other islands where they can safely and effectively get there. People should not have to make two separate bookings to get to Bonaire or gamble that the airline wont' collapse or cancell flights. I am surprised that Curacao has not been effective in even getting better service into Hato Airport. The Bonaire government should make it easier and more appealing for at least some airline to come to Bonaire. American Eagle does little because it often takes Americans and Canadians two stops to Bonaire and the times are unacceptable for tourists.

I think people should try to change their own government before they try to change another country's government.

Daren, why don't you email the Bonaire government yourself, and let them know how you feel...and I agree with Mr. Tweed...

It would also be informative to look in BT archives to see the efforts that have been made to get swift, easy air service, by the government, the dive ops and all the tourist-service operators on Bonaire. The lack of direct flights is not for want of trying by all of the above.

None of the above, or any BT'er that I am aware of, has a magic wand; anyone holding such is most welcome to apply it to improving Bonaire's air service!!!

hear hear Glen!

Every time I fly to Bonaire I am aggravated with the trip. And I have been left, stranded and island hopped all over the southern carib trying to get there.
But once I'm on island I'm so glad it's hard to get to...helps hold down the tourist masses.
So it's worth the effort. If Bonaire gets over run with tourist.....jees can you image trying to get to Palau from south Georgia. Getting to China in November was bad enough. So I vote for leaving it just a bit of a little B with a big itch to get there.

Since there is no Open Skies agreement in Bonaire, the government holds an importnat key to the success of better air transport. I feel that many people are frustrated with getting to Bonaire. We are not asking for a non-stop JFK-BON, like the kind of service Aruba gets because few people want Bonaire to become the new Aruba. But, for both tourists and the Bonairian economy as a whole there should be stable air transport to the US. For the sake of both travelers and cargo.

There is another thread to the same subject just a few weeks old

http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/29/218802.html?1113835314

Rather interesting to read all this -- some are complaining about the air connections and want direct flights with a major airline - but big airlines only come when there are also big hotels ... there is now talk about ONE big hotel on Bonaire and some start directly complaining ... I guess there is no way to please everybody ....
And Daniel I thought you read about the referendum etc ... any government agreement would need for the time being still be with Curacao and not with Bonaire, no landing rights on Bonaire without permission from Curacao

Yes, I do know about the logistics of landing rights being in the hands of the Antillian (i.e. Curacao) government. Thus, I hope that once the Antilles are dissolved that better air service may become possible. I don't expect, and I think many don't want, big planes coming in from everywhere. Most airlines are barely staying alive with the routes they are currently flying. We just want solid service to the US, maybe just once or twice a week. By solid service, I mean reliable, on time, and at good times. I am sure KLM may be interested in setting up some service from Bonaire to the mainland, where they would be fed out of their partners' hubs (Northwest: Detroit & Minneapolis, Continental: Houston & Newark, Delta: Atlanta & Cincinnati).

I demand that people who seem to know better resist starting such silly threads.

AA/AE flies to and from Bonaire every day. Most of those flights are not full, except on the weekends. What more do you want, egg in your beer? :p
Personally, I'll take a lime in my Bright.

Daren, KLM do fly daily to the mainland, their mainland that is.

(From some comments I read it might be quicker to get a flight to Amsterdam and onward to BON)

William, we are trying to change our goverment, today is election day! So hopefully

Mr. Tweed,
I do not appreciate your rude remarks. Don't read the thread then if you find it silly. It's suppose to be a forum to discuss issues, not see who's right or wrong. I'll remember your remarks when you start a thread which I don't agree with.

Not my immediate concern (thank you poverty) but while I was a HUGE fan of AJ and hope they get back on their feet-or wings- it's not like there are NO flights or NO airlines serving Bonaire. East of the big pond they have KLM, USA/Canada has American Airlines. Both will get you to the island and neither has been cancelling flights, firing pilots or leaving folks stranded to my knowledge. I can't say I'd "like" to lay over in San Juan for an eternity myself, but you CAN get to Bonaire if you really want to.

After all the hubbub about crime scaring away tourists it WOULD be ironic if the crime thing came under control but by then was too big a P.I.A. to fly in.

Daren Daniels writes:

Mr. Tweed,
I do not appreciate your rude remarks. Don't read the thread then if you find it silly. It's suppose to be a forum to discuss issues, not see who's right or wrong. I'll remember your remarks when you start a thread which I don't agree with.


Now, I hardly EVER respond or get involved in these little kiddie things, but for god's sake people, READ WHAT YOU WRITE. Well if YOU don't like my thread then I won't like YOURS either!! So there !!!

May you be able to find a direct flight -- right back to your sandbox.

And a PS. "What Wally said."

After reading some of the news articles referenced on other AJ threads, I feel sorry for the people of Jamaica. It isn't a rich country, and tourism does bring in money. Their government is trying not to run deficits, but money doesn't grow on trees. Running an airline with today's fuel prices has got to be difficult.

What I don't understand is why the ticket prices are so low. $590 from Atlanta to Bonaire. Delta uses AJ for the same route, but Delta charges $200 more. I wonder how many people actually book with Delta, we didn't. How many would pay $1500 to fly RT from ATL to BON with one stop if it were reliable and the times were tourist friendly like AJ's?

Poor airline service is not isolated to Bonaire, I'm afraid. I live in the wild's of Canada and to get to Bonaire takes me 5 flights (4 if I'm lucky) and 3 days(2 overnights) then the same again going home. I'm OK with that because it the same the world over. I've tried getting to other diving destinations and same problem. Sure, I'd like to see direct service from Vancouver to Bonaire because I'm selfish but I hope that never happens. The harder it is to get there keeps the "last minuters" at home. Go ahead AA - bump me in San Juan again, I'm ready for ya!

In my soon to be 5th trip to Bonaire in June this will our 5th different route to Bonaire.

trip 1: (10 days) United to Miami, overnight in Miami (on purpose), ALM to Curacao, ALM to Bonaire, Same route back. No problems

trip 2: (11 days) Delta to Atlanta on red eye, AJ to Montego Bay on to Bonaire / trip back same but through Miami. AJ plane in Miami was broken, stayed in Atlanta till about 11am and they finally put us on a packed Delta flight, they did hold the connection in MO Bay. / Flight back ok except we sat on the tarmac for 1 1/2 hours in Miami waiting to get to Denver because of a paper work issue.

trip 3: (14 days) American to Dallas (plane broke delayed in Dallas for 2 hours changed gates twice). On to San Juan, missed our connecting flight (American put us up in a hotel for the night and had a plane for us a 9am. / Return trip same but through Miami, no problems

trip 4: (17 days) American to St. Louis to Bonaire, no problems / Return flight same except through Miami, no problems.

trip 5: Coming up (20 days) Supposed to be American through Miami to San Juan to Bonaire, return supposed to be same.

Cannot wait to see what excitement this trip brings. Bubbles and I just keep extending out vacations so if we have problems it won't seem like we are getting cheated out of anything. Sure it cost more and we end up doing without other things but we are just doing what we like.

Since we have found Bonaire we have not wanted to go anywhere else. Although we did go to Cancun last August to take my daughter on vacation cause it was cheaper. We have everything we need and want in Bonaire. It's nice that it's not so crowded and we don't care about beaches. We love the shore diving and have actually paid for boat dives that we did not use because we were on island time and the boat had a schedule and heck we could always grab a tank and dive just about anywhere we wanted.

I do sympathize with people going for 1 week as they are more sensitive to time issue and constraints and I too would like to see more reliable transportation to the island, but since I have no control over that, what can I do but enjoy the time that I do spend there. I probably will never get to spend as long a time on Bonaire as I am going to this time but I will always try for 2 weeks at least.

Aquaman

WOW,congratulations, since my short lived tenure on this site, this is the most responses to a subj i've seen, we also have a hard time getting to bonaire, but this will be our 7th trip to the island, each time we talk about going somewhere else next year, but.....it's magic has a hold on us

Hi Monty,

some day when you have a couple ten hours to kill, search under "Crime" or "Safety.

lol

HIGH RANDY, you're right, maybe just longer trips although we've never had any problem ourselves, of course, we do the obvious windows down, car unlocked thing, most of time we have a nice folding ice bag with sodas inside, but i guess that's not in too high demand, we do like to night dive on some of the sites out of town, and wondered if anyone has experienced any problems with locals harrassing after dark away from the lights?

Children's hour

(Message edited by seb on May 6, 2005)

Apologies Monty,

I was only referring to your comment about this being the longest thread you had seen on BT. For NO particular reason I picked crime and safety as search topics. I'm POSITIVE a search under THONGS or FLAMINGOS will yield comparable high thread count results. lol