WILLEMSTAD.- EXTRA, during the last few days, has received different reactions from travellers who fly to Miami, either for vacation or work, who run into astronomical rates from American Airlines. We talk about tariffs over 600 US dollars. Miles Mercera, president of Chata considers these sums a hindrance for local people to travel, but even more serious, is that this harms local tourism. This is because the prices of the tickets for Aruba are cheaper which means that tourists would choose to go to Aruba over Curaçao. And all this comes because there is no competition. In Aruba, according to Miles Mercera there are not two or three but more aviation companies that fly to different American destinations. Locals and tourists can choose between them, and this generates competition between the different airlines regarding their prices since they can lower them or play with their prices at convenience. In Curaçao, however, there is only one company that flies to Miami and is none other than American Airlines. And this type of situation allows them to raise their rates because they have no competition. Miles Mercera explained to EXTRA that they spoke about this issue within the Chata Board and they are worried. Therefore, during the first week of February they will have a meeting with American Airlines where clearly the price of the tickets will be the center point of the short list. In this meeting, Chata will explain among other topics to AA, that this type of rate breaks not only the locals that travel, but also the tourists who come to Curaçao. That tourists prefers to go to Aruba where the price of the ticket is cheaper instead of coming to Curaçao. And clearly this would be Chata’s biggest concern soon to be presented to American Airlines.
