At a press conference held at the Orlando Sanford International Airport, Pan Am President Dave Fink yesterday morning announced the…
At a press conference held at the Orlando Sanford International Airport, Pan Am President Dave Fink yesterday morning announced the airline’s upcoming schedule expansion and outlined his plans for a more extensive presence at the Airport. Pan Am has operated scheduled service from Sanford to destinations in the Northeast since 1999 and to the Caribbean since 2001. Those operations, as well as some new routes, will resume in mid-February and expand throughout the year, beginning with the return of travelers for the winter vacation season on February 13th. Recent media reports had inaccurately indicated that Pan Am was permanently withdrawing from Sanford.
Fink addressed the issue head on, saying We came to Sanford almost four years ago on the basis of a handshake and in the belief that Pan Am could partner with the Airport and its representatives to develop successful scheduled service. Together with our counterparts here at the Airport, including Airport Authority President Larry Dale, OSI President Larry Gouldthorpe, and the man who originally sold us on Sanford, Ray Wise, we have demonstrated that it is still possible to do business with trust and honor. That is why we established Sanford as our base of southern operations, and why we are expanding our presence here, beyond this wonderful Terminal and our Reservation Center, to include additional maintenance capabilities, as well as our new Airline Training Center.
The Airline Training Center will include flight simulators for pilot training and evaluation, as well as classrooms and facilities for the training of maintenance technicians and flight attendants. Construction on the Airline Training Center is currently underway and an opening date will be announced in the future.
Describing Pan Am’s new and extended schedule, Vice President of Marketing Dan Fortnam said In addition to our traditional routes between Sanford, Portsmouth, NH, Bangor, ME and San Juan, P.R., we are pleased to announce that in May we will add more flights to San Juan, as well as new non-stop flights to Aquadilla, P.R. and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and direct flights to Punta Cana, D.R.
Fortnam added In addition to the confidence shown in our plans by the Airport, Pan Am is especially appreciative of the continuing support of our travel agent partners, such as, locally, Expert Travel of Lake Mary, FL.
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