By this December American Airlines will offer 17 nonstop flights per day to Jamaica, a fillip for the country’s tourism sector. The move comes as demand for the destination rises, company executives told a delegation led by Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett on Thursday.
Jamaica’s popularity is evident, they added, from the destination taking the top spot — within the Caribbean — among consumers who use the American Airlines Vacations platform.
The comments were made during a visit, by a delegation from Jamaica, to the airline’s Texas headquarters. Bartlett was joined by the Director of Tourism, Donovan White; Senior Strategist in the Tourism Ministry, Delano Seiveright and Deputy Director of Tourism for the Americas, Donnie Dawson. They, along with Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) Chairman, John Lynch, are holding a series of meetings with a number of travel industry leaders across Jamaica’s largest source markets, the United States and Canada. This is being done to increase arrivals to the destination in the coming weeks and months, as well as to foster further investment in the local tourism sector.
The welcome news from American Airlines comes despite slowing global travel demand triggered by the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.
During the talks the airline also noted that they will increase — from one to three — the number of daily flights between Kingston and Miami and also offer three nonstop flights per week between Philadelphia and Kingston.
American Airlines offers nonstop service between Jamaica and the US cities of Miami, Philadelphia, New York JFK, Dallas, Charlotte, Chicago and Boston. As of November, they will be using their new, large, wide-bodied Boeing 787 planes, on several key routes to the country.
