The Aruba sun is shining bright as more capacity is put in by the airlines the coming months

ORANJESTAD – Queen Beatrix International Airport (AUA Airport) is excited to report that that traffic numbers continue to rise steadily across AUA’s busy skies, as air travel demand in the U.S. market picks up.

The total number of movements is expected to hit a new high with 151 flights and 15,932 arrivals over the course of the first full week of April 2021. The busiest day for arriving passengers is expected to be Saturday, April 10 when AUA Airport is forecasted to handle 3,500 arriving passengers and 30 aircraft.

The US recovery has been strong; total seat capacity reached 72% of pre-pandemic 2019 levels in the first quarter of 2021. Slowly but surely, data indicates that week over week capacity is recovering at least in the major regional markets. The key question remains “traveler confidence” as we look ahead into the second quarter of the year. The industry further eagerly awaits news on vaccine passports and the global acceptance of such a program.

“We are excited to see that air travel is picking up in a very steady pace, especially from our main market being the US. We are optimistic that U.S. carriers will reach pre-pandemic capacity levels by summer (April /May) 2021. We are also noticing an upward trend in the weekly passenger load factor upon arrival (percentage of occupied seats on board an aircraft), increasing over the last weeks reaching a new high of 64% versus an average load factor in 2019 of 85%”, said Aruba Airport Authority N.V. Air Service Development Manager Jo-Anne Meaux-Arends.