American Airlines introduces 757
Viewers who live near the
airport in Ladyville may have
recently noticed a sleek new
silhouette in the sky. The Boeing
757, operated by American
Airlines, is the largest aircraft
currently serving Belize and is in
use daily to and from Dallas.
The market in the Central and Western United
States is rapidly expanding and according to
American's general manager in Belize, the new
aircraft will provide both tourists and Belizeans with
more choices and better service.
Luis Alpuche, General Manager, American Airlines
Belize
”It’s the biggest narrow body aircraft that American
Airlines has in its fleet. American Airlines likes to
name its aircraft that are more than the sum number
of seats as luxury liners including the 757’s, 767’s,
MD11’s things like that.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What’s the seating capacity as opposed to the others
you’ve got?”
Luis Alpuche
”As against the 727, this one has twenty-two seats in
first class and one hundred and fifty-four seats in
coach. That gives us a total of one hundred and
seventy-six seats, as against the 727 that only had a
hundred and thirty-eight seats; we end up with
twenty odd seats more than the 727.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“More room in the aircraft?”
Luis Alpuche
“Absolutely. We always have more room. All American
Airlines aircraft were reconfigured to have more space
for seating, so you’re more comfortable.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Why is it for the Dallas route and not for the Miami
route?”
Luis Alpuche
”The Dallas route on last year’s season proved to be
very good for tourism. We had the 727 almost full
everyday. Not only that, it suffered many weight
restrictions and we were noticing that we could not
take everybody that we wanted to, so we put in the
757. More seats and the 757 would not suffer a
weight restriction because it’s a new technology
aircraft, bigger engines and we could take as much
passengers as we have seats daily.”
The use of larger and more modern aircraft on the
Belize run is not the only good news for the tourism
industry. There is a strong possibility that Delta
Airlines may begin service to Belize from its Atlanta
hub sometime in the new year. Latest figures from
the BTB indicate that tourist arrivals in November at
Philip Goldson International Airport were down five
point six percent from last year, but that hurricane
induced drop was less than anticipated. Figures for
the first eight days of December indicate a healthy
rebound with an eight percent increase over the
same period last year.
AmbergrisCaye.com 
