MIAMID-DADE – On Saturday, July 4, Miami International Airport welcomed the inaugural flight of Insel Air from Bonaire, Netherland Antilles to Miami – the only nonstop service between the Dutch Caribbean island and any U.S. city.
Bonaire is the fourth island in the Netherland Antilles with nonstop service from MIA, joining Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten. Curacao-based Insel Air, which began operating at MIA in November 2008, will provide once-a-week service to Bonaire every Saturday and also operates flights from MIA to Curacao five times a week. MIA now has non-stop flights to 28 destinations in the Caribbean and continues to have more flights to Latin America and the Caribbean than any other U.S. airport.
Insel Air is the latest airline to begin either new or additional service at MIA this year. On June 20, Air Europa began once-a-week, nonstop service to Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain – the only nonstop flights from Tenerife to any U.S. city and MIA’s ninth European non-stop passenger route. Also in June, Allegiant Air began providing weekly charter flights to Havana, Holguin, Camaguey and Cienfuegos in Cuba.
In March, Cathay Pacific Airways began the first-ever cargo route from Hong Kong to Miami with three-times-a-week service from the world’s busiest cargo hub to MIA, and Bogota-based LANCO began daily nonstop roundtrip freight service to Bogota. MIA continues to be the leading international freight airport in the U.S.
Insel Air’s inaugural arrival at MIA from Curacao in November 2008 received a water cannon salute from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. Insel added service from Bonaire to MIA on July 4, 2009.
