Wierd question. We are from Canada. We are looking at a vacation in Ambergris Caye in September. Does anyone know when direct flights from the US mainland to Belize City begin. I know there are direct flights from LA, Newark and Houston but not all are year round. If we knew when the direct flights begin perhaps we will front end a stay in that City. EG if we could get a direct flight from Newark then maybe we would have a visit to NYC before we came to Belize.

Strange post, direct flights are year round.

He's a Canuk.

I bet he can spell Canuck as well...

Canuk, Canuck. Tomato. Tomawto......

Wikipedia: The term Canuck is first recorded about 1835 as an Americanism (American term), originally referring specifically to a French Canadian.

I hope the locals don't know the difference between a CANUCK and a CANOE.

ANSWER: A CANOE sometimes tips!!

It depends on the market. Flights from DFW (American), MIami (American) and Houston (United, Avianca/TACA) are year-round, with the number increasing in high season. Flights from Atlanta (Delta) and Charlotte (US Air, currently) are usually seasonal, with weekend/Saturday flights only much of the year, and no flights at some times. Flights from Newark (United) vary depending on the time of year, with more flights December through January. Delta's new flights from LA I think are going to be seasonal. Sun Wing, I think it is, has seasonal charter flights from Toronto. But the flight schedules change regularly, certainly from year to year, so you have to check depending on when you are going. The coming merger of American and US Air may change the schedules, as did the merger recently of Continental with United.

Use a meta-search engine like Kayak.com to check for flights from the markets closest to you, at the time you want to go.

There are on average roughly 29,000 total available seats per month from North America (U.S., Mexico and Canada) to Belize, the next to lowest number of flights to any country in Central America. Costa Rica has the most seats, Panama is second, Honduras is third and Guatemala is fourth.

Unfortunately Sunwing hasn't scheduled Toronto/Belize since 2012. Even then, the flight was actually to Roatan and passengers were subsequently flown to Belize (I'm pretty sure they landed in Placencia) via Tropic Air.

Lan, how do Nicaragua and El Salvador figure on the 'seats' list?

Sorry, my mistake on Sun Wing. I've never understood why there aren't scheduled nonstop flights at least seasonally from Toronto and Vancouver to Belize. Canada is the second-largest visitor market for Belize, and with Canadian winters has the potential to grow even bigger -- you'd think they could fill a couple of planes a week to BZE. If I were with the BTB, that'd be my first priority in getting new air service.

The data I was looking at was seat capacity non-stop from North America (U.S., Canada and Mexico) to Central America and so far as I know didn't include intra-Central America capacity. That wouldn't have too much impact on Belize, except for any TACA/Avianca flights from San Salvador. Now I can't seem to find the report, but if memory serves El Salvador had slightly more lift capacity from North America than Nicaragua. I do remember the 2013 data did specifically include the Tropic flights from Cancún to Belize.

Panama City has become a major hub, with flights from lots of cities in North America, South America and Central America and also in the Caribbean. For example, if you want to go to Cuba, you're likely going to hop to Panama City and catch a flight from there to Havana. Hence, the growth of COPA.

As I say, I think the upcoming merger of American and US Air will have an impact on flights from the U.S. to all countries in Central America, but what impact I'm not sure. I just hope it doesn't mean I'll have to fly through Miami. I hope never to set foot in that airport again, if I can help it.