UX announced last week they are dropping SJU by the end of this month of June.

http://sincomillas.com/air-europa-cance ... erto-rico/

La compañía Air Europa decidió el jueves cancelar sus vuelos semanales entre España y Puerto Rico, un trayecto que comenzó hace dos años y que, debido a la baja ocupación y a la fuerte competencia de Iberia, se ha visto obligada a cancelar. Las llamadas de SIN COMILLAS a la Compañía de Turismo para confirmar la información no han recibido respuesta. Tampoco han recibido respuesta las peticiones de información a Air Europa.

Norwegian had cancelled SJU last year.

This is such a shame... and the current economy in PR isn't helping either

Embajador3 wrote:

This is such a shame... and the current economy in PR isn't helping either

The current crisis in Puerto Rico is why there are these cancellations. Puerto Rico is on the cusp of Hurricane season again & they have not even come close to repairing what happened last fall. I believe at this point, that Puerto Rico may become a failed territory. The money needed to fix & build or the needed infrastructure to help all of PR's people, not just a privy few. will far exceed any income PR can bring to itself & that means, we must have their backs, give & do more to get these millions of folks, back into the 21st century & on with their goals & lives.

What a pity, with the economy on the island and IB also on the route this was a matter of time.

IB seems to be doing much better because of the Spanish construction companies involved with rebuilding the island.

There is a lot of money allocated and it is going out. As of right now it's double the normal annual budget of the Island's government so you can't just go out and spend that and have it all fixed right away. That said, they are working on it and delays are understandably agonizing.

Right now, the focus is on basic infrastructure and services, the next focus will be on housing followed by less urgent infrastructure and hopefully being able to have even better construction on the highway systems.

LupineChemist wrote:

IB seems to be doing much better because of the Spanish construction companies involved with rebuilding the island.

There is a lot of money allocated and it is going out. As of right now it's double the normal annual budget of the Island's government so you can't just go out and spend that and have it all fixed right away. That said, they are working on it and delays are understandably agonizing.

Right now, the focus is on basic infrastructure and services, the next focus will be on housing followed by less urgent infrastructure and hopefully being able to have even better construction on the highway systems.

Additionally, IB has a much stronger brand recognition on the island, this summer I believe IB started the season earlier (and might have added frequency-not 100% sure). Once IB went back into SJU, the writing was on the wall for UX.

Sad to see but not a surprise. At least the IB connection is still in place and to be honest is more then enough capacity for the current climate. Hoping that this years hurricane season is kinder to the Island. It was in bad shape when I was there last November although it was also impressive how they got things up and running in the main areas.

chepos wrote:

Additionally, IB has a much stronger brand recognition on the island, this summer I believe IB started the season earlier (and might have added frequency-not 100% sure). Once IB went back into SJU, the writing was on the wall for UX.

Also IB has a much bigger network both in Spain and Europe.

Which are the largest PDEW markets to Europe from Puerto Rico? I assume Madrid and London must be on top; what else?

It’s funny, PR has come back booming for us load wise.

To understand what is going on in PR, you have to understand the situation before the hurricane.

PR went on a massive spending binge. Coupled with federal tax breaks that ended in the early 2000s that chased business away, they were in a massive hole and a decade long recession.

PR was likely grasping on to air service it could barely sustain before the hurricane. It is long known on a.net that Puerto Rico is no longer the air hub or commerce hub of the Caribbean.

The hurricane likely sped up a new economic reality that was coming anyway.

Don't be surprised when the low season starts in September, IB will reduce service. Most airlines dramatically reduce service during the peak of the hurricane season. Hope IB will maintain permanent service.

RWA380 wrote:

Embajador3 wrote:

This is such a shame... and the current economy in PR isn't helping either

The current crisis in Puerto Rico is why there are these cancellations. Puerto Rico is on the cusp of Hurricane season again & they have not even come close to repairing what happened last fall. I believe at this point, that Puerto Rico may become a failed territory. The money needed to fix & build or the needed infrastructure to help all of PR's people, not just a privy few. will far exceed any income PR can bring to itself & that means, we must have their backs, give & do more to get these millions of folks, back into the 21st century & on with their goals & lives.

Totally agree with you.

PRAirbus wrote:

Don't be surprised when the low season starts in September, IB will reduce service. Most airlines dramatically reduce service during the peak of the hurricane season. Hope IB will maintain permanent service.

Iberia this week upped his flight from 3 weekly to 5 weekly until August, when is 3 weekly again and continue operatin the route until October and resume in April.

It is hard to expect tourist going to visit an area where even the basic infrastructures are still not fixed. So airlines are probably responding accordingly.

IBE flies 5x weekly until first week of August, then it switches for a 3x weekly frequency and it only lasts till the end of October.

c933103 wrote:

It is hard to expect tourist going to visit an area where even the basic infrastructures are still not fixed. So airlines are probably responding accordingly.

I’m a native of the island, been there multiple times since the hurricane (last visit was late March/early April). The tourist areas are back to normal, even my hometown in the south is almost 90% back to normal and it is not considered a tourist town. The more remote mountain interior towns, towns in the Southeast (were the hurricane first hit) are the ones struggling the most, those smaller towns are seldomly if ever visited by tourist. You might have your typical electricity outage in the island but we even had that way before Maria when I was growing up in the island.

chepos wrote:

LupineChemist wrote:

Once IB went back into SJU, the writing was on the wall for UX.

Yep, definitely. Air Europa only entered because Iberia left, and two carriers on SJU-MAD is too much.

Also, Iberia's load factors were generally better than UX's, with a few exceptions in certain months. I don't know what yields were like or what their average load factor across their entire network is, but I'm surprised they lasted this long.

SCQ83 wrote:

chepos wrote:

Additionally, IB has a much stronger brand recognition on the island, this summer I believe IB started the season earlier (and might have added frequency-not 100% sure). Once IB went back into SJU, the writing was on the wall for UX.

Also IB has a much bigger network both in Spain and Europe.

Which are the largest PDEW markets to Europe from Puerto Rico? I assume Madrid and London must be on top; what else?

Just by a guess and anecdotal evidence (no figures just my guess) I would venture to say Spain, Italy (Rome) and Israel (last two for religious trips). The growing religious conservatives on the island save to visit the holy land, the affluent have it on their bucket list.

c933103 wrote:

It is hard to expect tourist going to visit an area where even the basic infrastructures are still not fixed. So airlines are probably responding accordingly.

The tourist areas are back up. San Juan has probably gotten the biggest focus as far as recovery and other tourist areas are faring well. Now if you take a drive through non touristed areas you'll see a very different picture but they've done as well as one could expect when it comes to fixing up tourist areas.

I really hope Americans visit more. The fares to SJU are quite low at the moment so its a pretty affordable Caribbean destination.