Puerto Rico governor Alejandro García Padilla welcomes airline and airport delegates to the Routes Americas forum in San Juan today, saying the lights are on for welcome visitors to the island.
The island’s tourism industry has already emerged from a decade-long recession – the first of any industry to emerge – he says at an event opening the Routes Americas forum.
Padilla’s government signed off on a 40-year concession of San Juan Luis Muñoz Marin International airport to Aerostar Airport Holdings, a consortium of Mexico’s Asur and Highstar Capital, shortly after taking office in 2013.
Traffic at San Juan airport has since increased 12.7% to 8.9 million in 2015 since 2012.
Padilla cites the airport’s air service development efforts for helping lift Puerto Rico’s tourism sector, for example the new service to Colombia, Mexico and four cities in Europe including London on Norwegian that Aerostar has landed in San Juan.
The previous Routes Americas event in Denver helped that airport land a new nonstop to Munich on Lufthansa and the larger World Routes forum aided Las Vegas in attracting 120 new weekly flights, says Katie Bland, director of Routes.
Routes Americas has 755 delegates registered for the event this year, the most ever, she says. The forum will host 90 airlines and more than 230 airports.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
