US Airways ending Fort Lauderdale-Central America nonstops

US Airways announced Monday morning that it will be ending all service from Fort Lauderdale to Central America. Service to Guatemala City will be shifted to Charlotte effective November 9th and nonstop service to San Jose will be suspended. Earlier this year, US Airways ended nonstops from Fort Lauderdale to Panama City and San Salvador due to poor passenger loads. US Airways also announced that they would add an additional daily flight from Fort Lauderdale to both Kingston and Santo Domingo effective November 10th. This would give Us Airways a total of two daily nonstop flights from Fort Lauderdale to both cities.

While Fort Lauderdale is the busiest domestic airport in the state, it appears to be flopping as an International gateway alternative to Miami. Fort Lauderdale is the nation's fastest growing (and most congested) domestic airport, but in the past year and a half has had severe reductions in International service including the loss of AeroMexico service to Mexico City, ACES service to Bogota, and American Airlines service to Caracas. US Airways had ambitious plans for a Fort Lauderdale hub to rival American's Miami operation, but thus far US Airways has found the endeveor to be rough going and thus is pulling back except from markets such as Santo Domingo and Kingston which rely primarily on Broward County traffic, rather than connections or Miami-Dade traffic.