Jamaica sets record with over 1 million airline seats for 2024 winter travel season

Jamaica's Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett announced that a record 1.05 million airline seats have been secured from nearly six thousand US flights for the upcoming winter season.

Highlighting the details, Minister Bartlett explained that 10 airlines have scheduled 5,914 flights from key US gateways to both the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay and Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston between January and April 2024.

"This surge in airlift represents an increase of 13 percent over winter 2022/2023, where we recorded a whopping 923,000 airline seats," he said. 

The specific airlines include American Airlines with 305,436 seats on 1,727 flights; Southwest with 106,925 seats on 611 flights; Delta providing 205,776 seats on 1,119 flights; JetBlue offering a total of 242,347 seats on 1,434 flights; United securing 92,911 seats on 525 flights, and Frontier adding 25,482 seats on 137 flights.

Contributing to the overall increase of 121,104 seats over the corresponding 2022/23 winter period are Spirit, Sun Country, and ALG Charter, collectively offering 65,677 seats on 361 flights.

Additionally, Caribbean Airlines from New York is expected to contribute to the increased airlift.

Minister Bartlett credited the ongoing efforts of the Ministry of Tourism, particularly through the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), as their marketing arm. He emphasized the collaborative work with international and local partners in the travel and hospitality sectors to ensure continuous growth in the tourism industry.

"If we continue on this impressive growth trajectory, we will be on track to meet our new projections of 4 million visitors and foreign exchange earnings of US$4.1 billion by year-end," he said.