Hi,

Has anyone heard of this airline and if so, reliable or not? Trying to get creative about
getting to Bon through Aurba and getting from
Aurba over. This airline was listed as an Aurba
to Bon carrier... Thanks Lydia

Had never heard of this airline until your post yestrday and then when visiting the USAir website to check out the rumor of their flying to Bonaire this airline came up with a scheduled flight from Miami. I was looking for February and it is scheduled to arrive in Bonaire around 6:30pm. Price in combination with a flight to Miami was over 1200 dollars per person!

I think that they mean DCA from MIA to BON. The USAirways website also claims that Air Moldova goes between Aruba and Bonaire, and this is clearly Royal Aruban Airlines considering that Moldova and Kaliningrad are in Eastern Europe!

Susan - U.S. Air will offer a non-stop flight between Philadelphia & Bonaire commencing in december. It's fact, not rumor. The info came from Best Fares Travel Club & Magazine... Well respected for their accuracy within the travel industry. However, neither fares nor schedules have been set. Any info or fare quote you get from U.S. Air at this point will not reflect the new service. When more detailed info is available, Best Fares will print it. Also, they seem to know what's happening before the airline reservation operators do.

Mimi,
When i type in best fare, I come up with Southwest
airlines. What is the web site address?

Also it looks like one can get from Aurba to Bon
via DCA/alm in the morning and afternoon via cur. (Price weekend aug/sept is 174 US dollars)

Caradonna travel agent - Tina - still has not
heard of Royal Arubian Airlines, but is checking.
Interestingly, I just got off the phone with her and she said that Avia, which is listed on bonairetalk might not be flying in the future.
Thanks Lydia

Daren,

Good point. I suspect that the USAirways system is mistranslating the two letter airline codes being returned by their reservations systems into what the letters may have meant at one point. For example, AA = American Airlines, LM = was ALM, etc. I think DCE/DCA is K8 or something like that.

Jake

http://www.bestfares.com

Mimi -- didn't mean to offend anyone with the word rumor.

I wasn't offended. You sounded perplexed and frustrated & I was trying to help you out. also wasn't sure if you saw my earlier post on US Air elsewhere on the board.
You may have noticed that very little offends me.
And when something does, I don't mince words.

I think United forgot to tell the dept of transportation in the Netherlands Antilles that they planned a flight. I spoke with one of the memebers of Central government yesterday and he seems to think it is just a rumor. Also,to add fuel to the fire, American (not the Eagle) is making noises that it may fly to Bonaire.

Mimi -- I appreciate the info on USAir and will keep my eyes open about this. We did not have any trouble with AA this April but would not mind USAir if the flight times were better! Air Jamaica means a bigger ground trip here to a more distant airport but USAir to Philly is not a problem. Thanks!

I hope AA and USAirways can get through all the red tape of the Bonairian government!

Michael,

I think you mean "US Air" and not "United"? I've not been able to find anyone here locally either that is aware of US Air coming here, including those people handling the airport facilities, nor are there any on-line news sources I can confirm that with (including US Air). If anyone has any further on-line links, let us know...

Would be nice to have American fly here directly from the U.S. though!

Jake

You are indeed correct. The American folks have been talking to Government and it is starting to take shape. Now that the airpot will have fueling capability, etc. it looks promising.

Also, apparently Bonaire is a good traffic destination for American and using an AA aircraft vice AE would help AA in the ongoing dispute about relative numbers of big and little plane pilots they can have--a union/contract thing. It is the reason they have at least talked about cutting out some routes in the Caribbean and stateside. Implication also of larger a/c (i.e, jets) and perhaps direct from US w/o SJU, both good things!!! As long as they don't use MIA as a hub....

Anything but Miami! But, if they use it for CUR it seems more than likely. I just hope that USAirways gets to come to Bonaire. They are on a huge Caribbean campaign, and they already have 16 Caribbean destinations. Air Jamaica would have to price compete with AA if they came to Bonaire.

If American does fly here, their closest hub (and their mainland Caribbean hub) is Miami, so that would be most likely (sorry). Another possibility would be JFK, which is another American hub on the east coast, if I'm not mistaken.

Jake

sorry everyone, i made a mistake about the u.s. air flight from philly to bonaire. It's philly to st. kitts that begins in December. Too bad. but i hear st. kitts has spectacular, unused dive sites that are worth checking out.

What is Kaliningrad Airlines? Has anyone flown this carrier? It sounds supiciously like a spin-off of ALM. They are on the USAir site and maybe American, with flights from MIA to CUR on an MD80, with connecting service to BON on a Dash8. Sound familiar??? The price is nearly reasonable, and I am inclined to give them a try, but would like to know more. I thought I saw a posting about this last week, but now I can't find it. Does anyone have any details?

did you read the usa today on the md80?

Lonnie, I moved your question here, as it seemed to be the place where your question could be answered...

Jake

Gary...what's up with the MD80's?? Carole

Lonnie,

Please see Jake's comment about mistranslation of airport codes above on May 01 (May 1st--May Day--Kaliningrad Airlines--Jake.....). In days of the Cold War, KA might have been called a 'red herring'.

Anyone have a telephone number for Kaliningrad airlines? Thanks
Will

It is DCE/DCA, Dutch Caribbean Express/Airlines the replacement for ALM. They got stuck with a previously used airline code. There website is http://www.flydca.net