Wouldn't You Know We're Flying the Mayaguez Express
If you want to avoid the two- to three-hour drive from the west coast of Puerto Rico to the San Juan metro area, or the reverse, then try one of Cape Air’s four daily flights each way from the Mayaguez airport to the international airport in San Juan.
The 37-minute flights in 9-seater Cessna 402C aircraft are an experience in themselves on the way to or from whatever vacation, business trip or other experience you have in mind.
The fares are reasonable, and there’s free parking at Eugenio María de Hostos Airport (MAZ) in Mayaguez. I recently parked my Jeep there for free for nine days during a trip to the Dominican Republic.
I took the 8:30 a.m. flight on a recent Tuesday from Mayaguez to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU) in San Juan for $89. It was easy to connect to my JetBlue flight, which likewise took around 35 minutes to Punta Cana.
The airport experience in Mayaguez was pleasant enough. As far as I could tell, this was the only flight taking off around this time. During the check-in process, the agent asked passengers their weight, and weighed our bags so we could be loaded appropriately onto the plane. (I was wondering if there is an algorithm, formula or best practice about passengers lying about their weight.)
The flight had seven passengers plus the captain and a co-pilot. Although the legroom was a little cramped at 27 inches, it wasn’t really an issue for me on such a short flight, but might be for bigger people.
Nine days later I took a return flight from San Juan to Mayaguez for a $49 fare. Only four passengers this time, and just the captain and no co-pilot.
The Cape Air flights take off from Terminal D in San Juan, which is a bit of a walk from the main terminals but it is buffered from a lot of the hustle-bustle of the rest of the airport. We were seated with people getting on aircraft bound for Tortola and St. Thomas.
The Mayaguez-San Juan flight was particularly picturesque. We took off from San Juan on a runway also used by Southwest, JetBlue, Spirit, Frontier and United, among others, hung a left over the trees and beach, and reversed course along Isla Verde and toward Old San Juan before flying inland over the island toward Mayaguez. Before you knew it, we were descending onto the Mayaguez runway.
Both of my flights, which were a bit bumpy at times in the 9-seater aircraft, took place in sunny and otherwise ideal conditions so I don’t know how fun the trip would be during more challenging weather.
Still, I do know the flight was a pleasure compared with what can at times be a 2-3 hour traffic-filled commute into San Juan, or something similar in the reverse direction.
Little Cape Air, which began flying in 1993, and is based in Hyannis, Massachusetts, flies to 37 cities in the U.S. and Caribbean.
I might have to try a few more of those.
Great review, Dennis! I didn’t know about the free parking. You mentioned the terminal was a bit far. Do you think an hour is enough time between flights when booking one of these connecting from San Juan to Mayaguez?