Reliability of Morning Insel flight from BON to CUR

[Lorenzoid]

To compound the issue, the Curacao airport doesn't exactly make my top 10 list for most reliable or efficient. I've never connected thru it, just arrived/departed. Relying on the Curacao Insel baggage handlers to produce your luggage quickly enough may be another hurdle.

On a CLT-CUR-BON itinerary with Insel, they mistakenly transferred my dive gear to a flight to Caracas instead of the CUR-BON flight. It took them two days to get it back to me in BON.

 

[drbill]

I had to sit in the Bonaire airport for hours and hours (late into the night) for my baggage to arrive on the last flight since they "lost" it in Curacao. They said I could pick it up the next day but I said no way as it was all my dive gear and I was diving the next morning.

 

[jimw]

We are bringing the full family, 7 of us in total, for a two week holiday in June to Bonaire. The Ita website keeps pushing a return schedule with a morning flight via Insel Airlines from BON to CUR at 7:00 AM with only a 50 minute layover/connection time for the US Airways 08:15AM flight to Miami.

This makes me very nervous given Insel's reputation for delays. Anyone here have much experience with how well this flight operates? My inclination is to depart Bon the night before, but I forfeit one day of diving, lodging and vehicle rentals in the process doing so. Any feedback is appreciated.

DiviDivi Air is the only reliable connection between Bonaire and Curacao. You won't find their flights on ITAsoftware.com as they are a tiny airline flying twin engine 9 passenger planes. They run a number of flights between Bon-Cur 6 days a week--no Sunday flights I think. I have used them several times between Bonaire and Curacao. We used Insel Miami-Cur-Bon and the reverse once and they ran a little late but no big deal THAT time. An advantage of doing Insel all the way is that there is no need to do the security, baggage, ticketing, security, etc thing in Curacao--just wait in the gate area! Not that I would do it again when there is a reliable alternative.

 

[Sharkygill]

Ultimately I booked flights that leave at around 2pm, giving us the full morning to get from BON to CUR. It would up causing an overnight stop in MIA, but that was acceptable since to avoid the early morning scramble I would have left Bonaire a day early and overnighted in Curacao. I’m happy with the outcome, as long Insel can get us to Bon on the incoming leg. Thanks for all the feedback!

 

[jimw]

Live Insel Air International Flight Status

I used this a few years ago to monitor Insel Mia-Cur. Today's flight is in the air now. Register to see the last 40 flights. At the time, I had them an average of 25 min late leaving Mia, with a max of about 2 hours during the period monitored. The last several trips, we have gone north to Atlanta and Delta's nonstop.

 

[Hintermann]

I used this a few years ago to monitor Insel Mia-Cur.

From MIA there is an AA flight to CUR, which is what I am doing, leaving Insel just for the CUR-BON leg. A delay outbound would only mean a later arrival in Bonaire that evening/night.
The return leg is the one that I am worried about. I am scheduled to take the mid-morning Insel flight out of BON to CUR and connect to the AA flight to Miami. I have allowed 4 hours and 15 minutes between the two flights in Curacao and can only hole that this is enough.