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Additional Capacity Expected to Help Drive Winter Growth

KINGSTON, Jamaica – With just over two weeks for winter travelers to start their vacations, Jamaica has announced that it has secured a record 1.05 million airline seats from nearly six thousand flights coming into the destination out of the U.S. during the upcoming winter season, which is expected to be its best yet. This represents an increase of 13 percent over winter 2022/2023, when it recorded a whopping 923,000 airline seats.

“To date, ten airlines have some 5,914 flights to Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay and Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston scheduled out of key U.S. gateways between January and April 2024,” said the Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism, Jamaica. “This adds to the flurry expected over the 2023 holiday period.”

Airlines Flying to Jamaica

The lineup of airlines for the winter 2023/2024 season includes:

• American Airlines with 305,436 seats scheduled on 1,727 flights;
• Southwest with 106,925 seats scheduled on 611 flights;
• Delta with 205,776 seats scheduled on 1,119 flights;
• JetBlue with 242,347 seats scheduled on 1,434 flights;
• United with 92,911 seats scheduled on 525 flights;
• Frontier with 25,482 seats scheduled on 137 flights

Also contributing to the overall increase of 121,104 seats over the corresponding 2022/23 winter period are Spirit, Sun Country and ALG Charter, with a combined 65,677 seats scheduled on 361 flights. Additional airlift is further slated to come from Caribbean Airlines flying out of New York.

Key Marketing Efforts

“These numbers reflect the ongoing efforts of the Ministry of Tourism, through the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) as our marketing arm, working alongside our international and local partners in the travel and hospitality sectors to ensure continuous growth in our tourism industry,” continued Minister Bartlett.

2023 Stopover Visitors Increasing

Minister Bartlett also stated that, “Already for the period, January to November 29, 2023, preliminary figures indicate that some 2.5 million stopover visitors have graced our shores, accounting for an 18 percent increase over the same period in 2022 and a 10 percent increase over the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.”

“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 USD $4.1 billion by year end,” Minister Bartlett concluded.

Strong Relationships With Travel Partners

“The Jamaica Tourist Board maintains strong relationships with airline and travel industry partners and we are grateful they have added capacity into the destination this winter,” said Donovan White, Director of Tourism, Jamaica Tourist Board. “We anticipate a record-breaking winter season in terms of stopover arrivals, which is bolstered by these added seats from key U.S. carriers.”