MONTEGO BAY, St James — Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett yesterday announced that American low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines will add new non-stop flights between Montego Bay and Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Maryland, USA, starting March 22.
“Montego Bay will be the second international route for Spirit from the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The carrier only started service to Cancún, Mexico last month,” Bartlett said. “This is yet another indication on the heightening demand for Jamaica augurs very well for the tourism growth strategy. We are seeing solid results.”
Delano Seiveright, senior advisor and strategist in the tourism ministry, is elated at news of the additional airlift.
“The news comes after Jamaica last week shattered all visitor arrival records by recording four million combined stopover and cruise tourist arrivals in a year.
“More new flights, more new rooms, closer collaboration with cruise operators, enhancing relationships with non-traditional players like Airbnb and, of course, deepening linkages across entertainment, gastronomy, health and wellness, and other areas are among the lead initiatives being pursued to achieve Bartlett’s aggressive tourism growth goals,” Seiveright said.
Spirit currently operates non-stop flights between its Fort Lauderdale, Florida hub and Montego Bay and Kingston.
The airline is an American low-cost carrier headquartered in Florida, and operates scheduled flights throughout the United States and in the Caribbean, Mexico, Latin America, and South America.
The additional flights by Spirit comes just after major US airline Southwest — the world’s largest low-cost carrier — increased to two, daily non-stop flight service between Fort Lauderdale and Montego Bay, thereby adding another 52,000 new seats in and out of Jamaica and increasing connectivity to other US cities. This brings to roughly seven, the number of daily flights into Montego Bay by Southwest, which also runs non-stop flights between Montego Bay and Orlando, Florida; Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois and Baltimore, Maryland.
“More recently, too, Jamaica has 40,000 additional airline seats committed for winter from Canada, with Sunwing confirming that they will operate over 100,000 airline seats for the season — a historic development — including non-stop flights between Montego Bay and Vancouver, Canada’s third largest metropolitan area,” Bartlett pointed out while en route to Switzerland, where he is to present the recently unveiled Declaration of Montego Bay to the delegates at the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) Closing Ceremony for the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017.
The 15-point declaration was one of the major outcomes of the recently concluded UNWTO Global Conference on Sustainable Tourism held in Montego Bay, between November 27 to 29, at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.
Meanwhile, commenting on the growth in visitor arrivals, chief executive officer of MBJ Airports — the operators of Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport — Dr Rafael Echevarne said that the four per cent projected growth in passengers passing through the airport this year has doubled to eight per cent, thereby putting the facility “under a lot of pressure”.
However, half-way through the 30-year concession MBJ Airports Ltd has had to run the airport, Dr Echevarne noted that the board of directors approved expenditure of US$40 million to invest in further improvements in 2018 on infrastructure, including renovation of the ticketing area, the immigration hall and other public areas. This, Dr Echevarne said, is in addition to the US$24 million now being spent on improving the apron, taxiway and runway.
Meanwhile, Seiveright stated that Montego Bay will see several new non-stop flights, some of which have already started, including Vancouver, Canada; Munich, Germany; Warsaw, Poland; Madrid, Spain, and elsewhere.
“Discussions are onging on more flights from other destinations around the world. Announcements will come soon,” he noted.
