Alaska Airline Announces Direct Flight to Belize
Evan Tillett
A new airline is coming to Belize. Alaska Airlines today announced its new non-stop service from the West Coast of the United States to Belize. This is good news for tourism stake holders since air routes are considered the life blood of the tourism industry. No official date has been set for the airline’s first flight to Belize, but Alaska Airlines has already taken to its twitter account to announce its direct flight to Belize for later this year. News Five spoke to Evan Tillett, the Chairman of the Belize Tourism Board about this latest partnership.
Evan Tillett, Chairman, Belize Tourism Board
“In terms of trying to get a new airline to come to Belize, it takes a team effort. We have a committee called, air development committee. Its only and main role is to increase and maintain airlift to the county of Belize. That committee is made up of private and public sector partners, including the B.T.B., the Ministry of Tourism, Aero Dispatch, Tropic Air, B.T.I.A., the local airlines, B.H.A., Belize Airport Concession Company Limited, those are the members of the airline development committee. This government has taken a very aggressive posture in terms of seeking air connectivity for the country. We see that as the life blood for the tourism sector. So, the more direct routes you have to Belize, the more opportunities we have to fill all the hotel rooms to ensure the tourism stake holders are benefiting from tourism. I think it is a lot of hard work that went into this to get to this point. And the tourism industry will always be elated and happy when there is new airlifts to the country. It opens new opportunities and makes access to Belize easier. We will continue to work, as it relates to the BTB and the Airline Development Committee to seek and try to get new airlifts to our country. It will only allow us to grow and become more competitive on the global scale for tourism.”
Alaska Airlines is headquartered at the Seattle-Tacoma airport in Washington. It is the fifth largest airline in the United States. Belize will join Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica that Alaska Airlines flies to from its West Coast hubs.
