Yellowtail From Belize, joined Jun 2005, 2293 posts, RR: 1 Posted (3 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 1873 times:
Hey guys.....been reading A.net for a long time..finally decided to spring for the $25........
Currently BZE has these "major" departures
IAH 2Xdaily on CO
IAH 1Xdaily on TA
MIA 2X daily (moving to 10 X weekly later this year) on AA
CLT 1Xdaily and sometimes 2 on SAT on US
EWR 1X weekly on CO
DFW 1Xdaily
ATL 1Xdaily on DL
SAL 1Xdaily on TA
NOW.....RUMOR (according to the ground agent) has it that US will start PHX in april or "when the runway extension" is complete with a 757.....
AND..RUMOR....is that CM has stated they would like to start 4Xweekly to Panama as this is a heavy business route because of the free zone there....
IMHO, this will kill one CO frequency as they rely heavily on the LA/SoCal Belizean traffic to fill parts of both flights.....approx 30 pax per flight..and the latter will definitely finally kill TA as they used be to all over BZE and barely hang on now because of the monopoly they enjoy in anyone want to go to C. America (mostly Costa Rica and Panama)
Pzurita1 From Bhutan, joined Sep 2002, 1266 posts, RR: 19 Reply 1, posted (3 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 1840 times:
YellowTail,
Thanks for starting a thread about BZE.
Quite a lot of services for a country of less than 300,000 inhabitants. It has 8 daily flight to 5 major US hubs (where I guess most of the traffic is located).
I am not very sure about how succesful could be a flight to PTY. I am not Belizean and have only been there twice as a tourist. However, I can barely see any interest in PTY or in South America through the trade figures.
Belize exported as little as US$350M in 2005. Most of it went to US and UK and a little bit to Jamaica (US$11M). It also exported US$600M during the same year. Again, US is the largest trade partner, but also Mexico (US$75M), Guatemala and Cuba (US$45M each). However, most of it comes by road (except, obvioulsy Cuba).
We can see trade to other countries in Central and SouthAmerica is close to nil in terms of US dollars. Foreign investment from anywhere but US is also neligible.
So, I guess, BZE is pretty well served from those 5 major gateways in US and SAL in Central America.
I remember when I flew from SAP to BZE and back to SAL. I remember also when QA flew from CUN to BZE. Long gone are the days.
ScottB From United States, joined Jul 2000, 4283 posts, RR: 34 Reply 2, posted (3 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 1830 times:
Quoting Yellowtail (Thread starter): NOW.....RUMOR (according to the ground agent) has it that US will start PHX in april or "when the runway extension" is complete with a 757.....
7100 feet of runway is more than enough for a hot-rod 757 to make it to PHX. Besides, if they were to fly PHX-BZE, it's a lot more likely that they'd start with an A319; PHX-CUN operates with the A319.
Quoting Yellowtail (Thread starter): IMHO, this will kill one CO frequency as they rely heavily on the LA/SoCal Belizean traffic to fill parts of both flights.....approx 30 pax per flight
Continental is unlikely to lose much or all of that traffic to connections in PHX, given that they offer a better product and a better schedule (with two daily choices through IAH). Total distance via IAH versus PHX is only about 150 miles greater; going through PHX won't save much time. And if the CM service forces TA out of the market, CO would have BZE-IAH to themselves...
Lt-AWACS From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (3 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 1815 times:
Welcome to A.net
I do not think CO will lose any of its Belize service. I just know too many people, businesses and companies that use it and love it (just conjecture but I mean A lot of companies). Granted price could shift folks to Phoenix, but I do not see that happening anytime in the near future. If any thing takes away from CO it would be updated frequencies to Tikal/Flores, but even then I don' think it would dent the Houston service.
I don't ssee a huge market for Panama. More to the Cayman's, Cancun, or even Havana before anything South of BZE. The Caricom draw is bigger IMO than the LatinAm one.
Ciao, and Hook 'em Horns,
Capt-AWACS, Veni, Vidi, Bibi
Yellowtail From Belize, joined Jun 2005, 2293 posts, RR: 1 Reply 4, posted (3 years 9 months 3 weeks 17 hours ago) and read 1749 times:
LT-AWACS...thought you were a Belizean!
Service to Caricom will be a failure apart from the odd charter to Cayman...remember JM flights MBJ-BZE were a disaster ...sometimes with only 6 people on board.....
service to GUA (with stops) has been tried many times by TA, Tikal Jets, and a few others....never been successful....Tropic & Maya Island do Flores in Caravans and they sturggle to fill the planes....
ex for Sat, TA has literally about 10 passengers a day get on in BZE for IAH.....they keep the route open to bleed those wanting to head to SAL/SJO/PTY...US$400 just to SAL.....not to mention to justify having a ground handling operation in BZE where they are making serious money
From what I hear the Flores route for COex has been struggling.....
Carmenlu15 From Guatemala, joined Dec 2004, 4584 posts, RR: 50 Reply 5, posted (3 years 9 months 3 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 1698 times:
Hi Yellowtail, welcome to a.net! Good to see a neighbor around
Quoting Yellowtail (Reply 4): service to GUA (with stops) has been tried many times by TA, Tikal Jets, and a few others....never been successful....Tropic & Maya Island do Flores in Caravans and they sturggle to fill the planes....
Correct me if I'm wrong, but hadn't Tikal Jets resumed GUA-BZE nonstop? At least it was showing in their website (which seems to be unavailable at the moment )
Aer From Guatemala, joined Mar 2004, 689 posts, RR: 4 Reply 6, posted (3 years 9 months 3 weeks 2 hours ago) and read 1684 times:
Quoting Carmenlu15 (Reply 5): At least it was showing in their website
Well, Carmen don't believe WU's page, a friend of mine is a pilot for them and last I heard, it only lasted for about 2 weeks or so. On the other hand you see BZE because they suposedly made a deal with Maya Island.
"Centroamerica ya no es tan facil" // GUA is CAT I !!!!!!
Carmenlu15 From Guatemala, joined Dec 2004, 4584 posts, RR: 50 Reply 8, posted (3 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 1674 times:
Quoting Aer (Reply 6): Well, Carmen don't believe WU's page, a friend of mine is a pilot for them and last I heard, it only lasted for about 2 weeks or so. On the other hand you see BZE because they suposedly made a deal with Maya Island.
Thanks for the info! The webpage is indeed inaccurate... I finally managed to open it, and the homepage states as destinations GUA, FRS, and CUN. But when you click on "Destinations" it mentions GUA, FRS, and BZE! Oh well...
SCCutler From United States, joined Jan 2000, 4007 posts, RR: 35 Reply 9, posted (3 years 9 months 3 weeks ago) and read 1662 times:
Quoting Yellowtail (Thread starter): RUMOR (according to the ground agent) has it that US will start PHX in april or "when the runway extension" is complete with a 757.....
..don't hold your breath waiting for the runway extension; all work ceased in a dispute between the contractor and airport authorities, all equipment removed, grading on the 25 approach done and that is it.
...three miles from BRONS, clear for the ILS one five approach...
Yellowtail From Belize, joined Jun 2005, 2293 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 1638 times:
Quoting SCCutler (Reply 9): .don't hold your breath waiting for the runway extension; all work ceased in a dispute between the contractor and airport authorities, all equipment removed, grading on the 25 approach done and that is it.
Not true ... as of 7am when I drove by this morning......equipment was there and workers were getting ready to do their thing..even passed by the boss on the way
Quoting USXguy (Reply 7): I remember flying into BZE on a Taca 767-300 That was very interesting... and man do I remember hitting that runway HARD!
Me to...several times......especially when it had a full load of pax and their kitchen sinks and televisions undeneath
Quoting Aer (Reply 6): it only lasted for about 2 weeks or so.
this is correct.....their problem was that this BZE-GUA is a business route that needs more weekly departures with a much smaller aircraft.
Quoting Carmenlu15 (Reply 5): Hi Yellowtail, welcome to a.net! Good to see a neighbor around
thanks....i think we are up to two A.net members here now!
Yellowtail From Belize, joined Jun 2005, 2293 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 1633 times:
[quote=USXguy,reply=7]I remember flying into BZE on a Taca 767-300/quote]
I forgot.....I believe it was a 767-200ER...they had 2 if my memory serves me well..one went off the end of the runway in GUA so they leased a replacment from Air NZ or Ansett.
Apart from the boring 73's and A319/20/21...at least we get weekly VC-10's and those oh so secretive late eveing / early morning US Military transports....they do their Bagdad style rapid decents right over my house!
Lindy Field From United States, joined Mar 2001, 2952 posts, RR: 9 Reply 12, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 1623 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW DATABASE EDITOR
Hey Guys,
Nice to see some Belizeans active in our forums. What's up with Tropic Air and Maya Island Air? I was in Belize a couple of years ago and flew on what was supposedly one of the first nighttime flights into San Pedro on a Maya Island Cessna. It was lots of fun to take a nighttime flight in which the only cabin illumination was provided by the instruments up front.
Yellowtail From Belize, joined Jun 2005, 2293 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 1604 times:
Whats up with Tropic and Maya.....well .......they are still doing those "winter" night time flights to San Pedro....kinda hair raising for alot of passengers......
Tropic has had one or 2 aircraft write offs last year due to weather related "incidents". they have since gotten a new caravan and are leasing a twin otter for the high season. Tropic enjoys healthy traffic loads.
Maya has quite a few Caravans of their own as it is the ideal aircraft for the job in Belize. still got a few Islanders too.
Both companys have some cowboy pilots as evidenced by the low level "buzz" the gave my boat the other day....we won't say which of the 2 it was!
hope it was a ferry flight and no passengers were onboard.
other than that ..I fly with them all time and always enjoy it especailly when I get to be "co-pilot".
Lt-AWACS From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 14, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 1572 times:
Tropic's lawsuits from the first crash are still active in US courts actually, but that is another thread topic
I agree with Yellowtail that Caricom flights could be weak, but I think they would be "Stronger" than anything going too far south, going off the original thought on the topic of Panama-esq flights.
I've been "co-pilot" literally one time, LOL on some of those, including into Dangriga. You have to love an airline that flies you in on one plane and your baggage on antother.
As for TACA I haven't flown them to Belize in many years, but the loads were "okay" many moons ago. My Continental flights from Houston are always packed, any day of the week.
As for the cruise ships, they kind of piss me off. I thought Said Musa was going to regulate them but I guess that hasn't happend? Bummer.
Ciao, and Hook 'em Horns,
Capt-AWACS, Watching you from 30,000 feet
IADCRJ From United States, joined Mar 2005, 332 posts, RR: 1 Reply 15, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 1543 times:
Does tropic or Maya do any flights from BZE to San Ignacio? The San Ignacio area to me, is one of the Belize's best kept secrets and would be a great Belizien domestic route.
IADCRJ From United States, joined Mar 2005, 332 posts, RR: 1 Reply 16, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 1541 times:
One thing regarding Belizien Aviation that I have always wondered is, why Belize doesnt have their own national airline that serves international markets?
To me, Belize is a fantastic nation, and wonder place to travel to, and a such a national airline could be a success.
If they ever did I imagine that it would have been likely that it would have been sucked into the TACA group.
USXguy From United States, joined Jan 2006, 220 posts, RR: 9 Reply 18, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1527 times:
San Ignacio to the Belmopan airport is like a 15 minute drive, if my memory serves me correctly... and I believe that Belmopan has some limited air service.
Also, I didn't think of San Ignacio being much of a tourist draw.. Cahal Pec is an interesting Mayan site and the downtown area has some *ok* shopping, but other than that....
2travel2know From Panama, joined Apr 2005, 3518 posts, RR: 5 Reply 19, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 1495 times:
If BZE is to enter BZE, it's my guess that they would route it via SJO or MGA and will make sure to offer inmediate connetions to/from KIN and POS in PTY - this means CM could arrive BZE evenning and depart early morning.
There's some demmand for BZE-PTY and 4 x week service on a E190 could do just fine.
What would be very interesting to see is a PTY-GCM-BZE-PTY / PTY-BZE-GCM-PTY.
Yellowtail From Belize, joined Jun 2005, 2293 posts, RR: 1 Reply 20, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 1446 times:
Quoting Lt-AWACS (Reply 17): There was many moons ago- Belize Airways Limited
There was also Belize Trans Air.......
As For
Quoting USXguy (Reply 18): an Ignacio to the Belmopan airport is like a 15 minute drive, if my memory serves me correctly... and I believe that Belmopan has some limited air service.
Obviously you haven't driven that lately....it is like 15 minutes to the first speed hump.....
Yellowtail From Belize, joined Jun 2005, 2293 posts, RR: 1 Reply 21, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 1443 times:
Quoting 2travel2know (Reply 19): What would be very interesting to see is a PTY-GCM-BZE-PTY / PTY-BZE-GCM-PTY.
This might actually work...quite a sizeable Belizean Community in Cayman....in fact there is usually a Easter charter ...especially if it was timed to connect to the KIN & MBJ flights in Grand Cayman
E-190 could actually probably make this route work.......
Belizexp From Belize, joined exactly 4 years ago today! , 357 posts, RR: 0 Reply 22, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 1392 times:
Quoting Yellowtail (Reply 4): JM flights MBJ-BZE were a disaster ...sometimes with only 6 people on board
The flts was not a failure just bad timing US Airways started service to Belize around the same time with the same days so it was a newcomer battle. Also at that time JM was cutting routes left and right to save money the Belize route was only like 5 months old at that time.
ScottB From United States, joined Jul 2000, 4283 posts, RR: 34 Reply 23, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 1384 times:
Thinking back to the early 90's, didn't SAHSA use BZE as a connecting point for some time? I seem to recall flights coming up from SAP, TGU, and possibly SAL, all stopping at BZE on the way to IAH, MSY, and MIA -- and then the reverse in the afternoon.
Belizexp From Belize, joined exactly 4 years ago today! , 357 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (3 years 9 months 2 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 1382 times:
SAHSA use BZE as a stop over point north (US) and south (C.A.)
Small correction, it is moving to 11x weekly between 3 April and 4 September, then back to 2x daily. Nothing new, they do it every year. Traffic to Belize falls off heavily in the summer months. Similary, during the summer 2006 timetable running April through September, USAirways will cut CLT-BZE to 3x weekly (two flights Saturdays, one on Sundays) and Delta will cut ATL-BZE to 4x weekly (MoThSaSu).
mark miami/los angeles
26 Yellowtail: well CO keeps it flights filled to the brim suring the summer....shows what having a real local office and local marketing will do....they got a loyal
27 Yellowtail: IF you call getting 50 passengers TOTAL on FOUR flights during a week "bad timing" then guess it is....their problem was the fact that most americans
28 2travel2know: The story I got from a Jamaican was that JM had to fly MBJ-BZE with an A320 not an ATR or similar because of the range, an smaller plane would have w
29 Yellowtail: They wanted to fly and A320 because Butch wanted to believe he was a cowboy with a golden touch....and that since Belize was hot, JM had to get in on
30 Belizexp: True look at his POS flt it was short lived. This A/C was needed by TA mainly for two reason Cargo space and LAX/JFK run from Central America. It was
31 Yellowtail: yes it was bought primarily for the LAX route but the 767 was used on the SAL-BZE-MIA-BZE-SAL-GUA-LAX-GUA-SAL circuit......with an occaisional IAH sub
32 Belizexp: I heard this too also from a well known Belizeans website it also say AC/NW was looking into maybe serving Belize. But I don't think NW will do this
33 Yellowtail: I am relatively close to the airport rumor mill.....and they way I understand it is a follows US - PHX/BZE is almost a definite NW- MSP/BZE was being
34 Belizexp: It look like NW codeshare on both Skyteam Partner CO and DL I just look it up today so we may never see NW metal in BZE but NW is there.
35 Yellowtail: Never say never....but I think the USA-BZE route has reached stauration point.....so NW may never get here. Look at DL and its struggles to fill its A
36 Dartland: I don't refute the comment about ticket offices. However, this is not the case in all Latin American markets. You can't walk 10 ft. in San Salvador w
37 Yellowtail: Remember Belize is more looked upon as a Caribbean Market than Latin. Here "we" think.....if we want to go to the the states....we don't call a travel
38 USXguy: I remember flying out of Belize Municipal to San Pedro on one of Tropic Air's Twin Otters and seeing Continental Airlines crap all over the place... k
39 SCCutler: Very glad to hear it, and I apologize for floating outdated information. Mine was as of early January, and I had not seen press regarding resumption.
40 Yellowtail: You were correct.....the runway has NOT always been paved. He was probably still in pampers when it was cut through the mangrove swamp. they have an
41 Yellowtail: BTW...anyone got a decent camera down here to go take some shots on a Saturday betwen 11 and 3....when our small airport is literally packed to the br
42 Lindy Field: Hi All, It would be nice to see more shots from BZE or other airports in Belize on a.net but don't forget, you can also upload photos of lower quality
43 Dartland: I'll be at BZE Friday! But I don't have a good enough camera...
44 USXguy: eh, I'll be there next Tuesday, but not sure I'm going to be in the mood to hang around the airport, probably head straight to my hotel then get a boa
45 Yellowtail: You don't need to be in the mood to hang around the airport.....on your way out, check-in then go upstairs to the external viewing area for awhile. If
46 USXguy: I'm more concerned with the water temperature. Here in the Keys its a chilly 72 (which is cold for us!). Just trying to figure out if we wanna do a to
47 Belizexp: Here some of my last trip to BZE in Dec at Caye Caulker.
48 Yellowtail: Will see if I can get a pic of the Sat airport lineup for you one of these weekends.....then at least we can have one modern photo on A.net! At the tr
49 USXguy: crap.. forgot about the cruise ships... scratch the Zoo, cave tubing, and Altun Ha... as we will be there Tues - Thursday. I've only been to Mayan rui
50 Dartland: I'm heading to Belize for a quick weekend -- staying at Jaguar Reef -- any suggestions of what to do? Is the Jaguar preserve worth checking out? Not i
51 Yellowtail: YES...not civil avaition....but we can let it slide if I throw in a comment about "be sure to see the pretty planes at the airport" Ruins (sites) in C
52 Dartland: Don't worry, I'll come back for more later. Actually, turns out Jaguar Reef didn't work out, so I'm now staying somewhere in Placencia. Back to aviati
53 Yellowtail: Maya And Tropic are pretty safe......there are the odd problems that are more often than not weather related....but this time of year that should not
54 Yellowtail: BTW.....word has jsut gotten to me that CM has a "inquired" about starting a route to BZE....actually it would be PTY-BZE-CUN on the ERJ....they want
55 USXguy: is there even room in the terminal for all these airlines?!?!
56 Yellowtail: now that is an excellent question! perhaps we can inaugurate a curbside ticket counter! if there is one thing we know how to do in belize is how to s
57 USXguy: CLT/BZE has been very heavy lately. My flights only have 20 open coming down, and 10 going back.
58 2travel2know: My guess is that then their daily PTY-CUN is not performing as well as they had expected.
59 SCCutler: I was going to tell, you blow off Jaguar Reef, and stay next door at Hamanasi Lodge; worlds better, IMHO. True story: when we stay at Hamanasi, there
60 Dartland: Wow -- Hamanasi looks really nice! Will have to remember that one if I can my girlfriend to come down. Thanks for the tip, SCCutler. How do we think t
61 Yellowtail: Hamanasi is excellent....although I did have a bad experience when I tried to get lunch there a couple of months ago..but we won't beat a dead horse!
62 Yellowtail: So USXguy & Dartland.....did you enjoy your trip......hoe the 40Knt wind didn't toss the Caravans around too badly?
63 Dartland: Indeed -- I had a great weekend in Belize! Did some sitting on the beach, some hiking in Cockscomb, some playing with the Howler Moneys -- lot's of fu
64 Belizexp: The loads are so so but from what I see and hear DL is there to stay but knowing from DL past who is to say this will not happen. DL needs LatinAm if
65 Yellowtail: I agree....hope it stays around longer.....rumblings abound about a reduction in service...... DL kept talking and talking....while US was moving in.
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