anybody heard any information about this? American eagle hasnt come in for 2 days, the hotel tells us that the FAA shutdown the airport for some reason. We are now in Bonaire (phew), anyone got a cheap room?

I checked with American Airlines and they said they haven't heard of any shutdowns and that they have an American Eagle flight coming in tonight on schedule.

didn't mean to scare anyone. it's strange though. we came in on American Eagle from PR wednesday night. They lost one of our bags, and we went to check on it thurs. night and the flight was canceld. checked again friday morning and they said the American Eagle flight was not coming in, nor did they know when it comeing in. They gave us a number to call at the bonaire airport. we called this afternoon and the woman told us that the FAA had closed the airport. Thought it was strange... Hope she didn't know what she was talking about. American Airlines didn't seem too interested in helping us find our bag either. Time will tell....

Well... This is what Linda got nailed by today when she tried to check in for her American Eagle flight to San Juan this morning - no plane, and no indication of when a plane would be available. Apparently (based on what I was told by someone in the know) the Bonaire airport's directional beacon went on the fritz yesterday (or earlier), and yes, it does appear that the FAA put all U.S. originating flights to Bonaire on hold until the beacon is repaired. Last night's flight from San Juan was therefore cancelled, with all 60 people scheduled on board stranded in San Juan.

The FAA hold on the Bonaire airport would apply to all U.S. originated flights only, I would guess (I'm pretty sure I heard AJ take off today, but that would make sense since the MoBay to Bonaire route would not be under FAA control).

So AE from San Juan is affected, and quite possible DCA from MIA tomorrow (although that tends to route through Curacao spontaneously anyhow, so who knows).

I managed to get Linda out to the U.S. via Curacao today, but only by calling on favors with a friend. Others heading to San Juan were told to head back to their hotels (or notified last night and told not to show up at the airport until further notice).

I've just tried calling the AA office at the airport but am not getting an answer, so no idea if the problem has been resolved...

The lack of a nav beacon does not seem to have seriously affected other flights - the KLM flight from Holland arrived just fine during the dark hours this morning...

Jake

Well - that's a fine kettle of fish! I've been wishing time away until our departure date; now I'm glad we have 5 weeks to go so maybe AE will be back to normal... Please keep us posted on developments.

Hmmm - just checked the AA web page for flight status, interestingly, they are showing both AE evening flights from SJU to BON today as in transit, roughly on time, with no comments re airport. Maybe already back to normal?????

I saw AE landing at Flamingo airport about 20 minutes ago.

thank you marion

for us that are essentially stuck with AA/AE...still so far so good!!!

Looks like it's fixed - there are two American Eagle planes down on the ground at the airport. Nice to see it back to normal, although I bet that all the people who didn't get out of Bonaire this morning as scheduled are flying out tomorrow morning instead...

Jake

glad they got it fixed, however, i surely hope it goes out again next time i am on the island, means a couple of more days of vacation (san juan, mb, bon, wherever!) michael and i were just talking about this, and his comment was "they don't have a backup beacon?" i thought, this is bonaire guess that is one of the things i love about the island..."beacon is out, no flights going in or out, we'll get back to you when we get it fixed." like it is "no biggie." or so it appears by what you have commented on in this thread...bonaire MAKES you relax...MAKES you get out of the "rush here, rush there"...i had to laugh just to think if the "beacon" went out at LAX...holey cow...i think we are so used to being scheduled to death, and when a "glitch" gets in our way, most folks just can't handle it and get more stressed...ahhhh...bonaire.....