American Airlines at “Aeropuerto Reina Beatrix”.
ARUBA--Aruba expected 4,000 passengers last weekend, most of them from the United States (US).
United Airlines from Newark, New Jersey, was the first flight to land as the island reopened to its main tourism market on Friday, when a combined 970 travellers came on 13 flights, of which five were from the US, seven from the Dutch Caribbean and one from Europe.
Saturday saw 1,738 arrivals on 14 flights, of which two were from the Dutch Caribbean, two from Europe and 10 from the US. These included passengers from Florida, who, just like others from high-risk states, must obtain a negative PCR test for COVID-19 in advance.
There were seven more US-based flights on Sunday, bringing the three-day total to 22.
Meanwhile, Curaçao did not close its airspace to Aruba as feared for letting back in the Americans. According to epidemiologist Izzy Gerstenbluth, Curaçao is at no greater risk than it was last week.
The medical expert thinks precautions taken by authorities in Aruba are sufficient. Travelers from there must not have been in any high-risk areas for 14 days, and are screened on arrival at Curaçao’s airport.
If there is a rapid increase in the number of infections in Aruba in a short time, the border will still be closed. The US is a high-risk country and Curaçao itself will remain closed to American air traffic for the time being.
Bonaire too has decided to maintain the “travel bubble” between the so-called ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao) for now.
