American Will Add Caribbean, Miami Flights

American Airlines said Thursday that it will expand service to Miami and the Caribbean by 44 flights a day beginning June 1, filling gaps left by strike-crippled Eastern Airlines.

American had said last year that it would expand in Florida, but the strike pushed its planning schedule ahead.

“Obviously the opportunity that Eastern’s problem presented brought us to take a look at the timing of that plan,” said Robert Baker, American’s senior vice president for operations. “It was probably a year down the road. The Caribbean part was closer than that.”

American will add 600 employees in Miami. The growth in Florida and the Caribbean will add 3,219 seats a day to the market. New routes from Miami will include nonstop flights to Los Angeles, New York and Boston.

New service to the Caribbean will include stops in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Kingston and Montego Bay in Jamaica; Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The Caribbean additions will link 14 cities served by American with the Caribbean hub in San Juan.

In Miami, American is expanding its daily service to 31 flights a day from 20. In San Juan, the number of daily flights will rise to 52 from 45.

Eastern service represented about a quarter of the seats from the United States to Jamaica and about a third of the seats to the U.S. Virgin Islands before the strike.

“None of what we have announced today will rise and fall on what happens to Eastern Airlines or anyone else,” Baker said. “The likelihood is that Eastern will still be the largest carrier” in the region, he added.

American is upgrading its fleet, switching to larger aircraft on 12 flights to the Caribbean to increase its capacity. Direct service from other U.S. cities to the Caribbean is part of the airline’s plan.