American Airlines Adds 5,000 Extra Seats in the Caribbean As Regional Flights Resume

American Airlines has added nearly 5,000 additional seats and scheduled 27 extra flights serving 10 Caribbean destinations following the reopening of Eastern Caribbean airspace, as the carrier works to accommodate customers affected by the FAA-mandated airspace closure.

The airline resumed scheduled service on Sunday, January 4, and added 23 additional flights that day across the region, supplementing its regular operation with increased capacity, Caribbean Journal has learned.

Those flights served Caribbean destinations including Antigua, Aruba, Barbados, Curaçao, Dominica, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Maarten and St. Lucia, operating primarily from Miami, Charlotte and Chicago.

In addition to adding frequencies, American increased capacity by deploying larger aircraft where possible, including the Boeing 777-300, the largest aircraft in its fleet, on select routes. 

The airline said the use of widebody aircraft was intended to add as much lift as possible as customers resumed travel to and from the region.

Additional flying continues on Monday, January 5, with four more added flights between Miami and San Juan, all scheduled to be operated using a Boeing 777-300. 

American said the additional flying is in addition to flexibility already provided through its travel alert and fare caps, and that the airline will continue making operational adjustments as it works to support customers impacted by the closure.

Eastern Caribbean airspace reopened early Sunday morning after the FAA lifted temporary restrictions that had been put in place Saturday following U.S. military action in Venezuela. The move was announced by US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

The military operation prompted the FAA to shut parts of Caribbean airspace, triggering widespread cancellations of flights to and from the region before airlines were cleared to begin restoring operations at 12:00 a.m. Sunday.

It should be noted that a number of destinations were not impacted by the closure and have been seeing normal flight operations for flights to and from the United States, including The Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, among others.