Frontier Airlines to Increase Flights to Jamaica

  • United States (US)-based Frontier Airlines has announced plans to increase the number of weekly flights to Jamaica, beginning November 1. International Sales Manager, Alfredo Gonsalez, has said that three new gateways will be added to the existing slate, to bring the number of destinations from which scheduled service into Montego Bay is provided, to four. 
  • Frontier will commence flights from Atlanta, Georgia on November 1, Orlando, Florida on November 2, and Newark, New Jersey on December 17. These, he indicated, will be in addition to flights from Miami, Florida to Montego Bay, which commenced in May. 
  • The decision was based on the need identified after two very difficult years in the travel industry, consequent on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, to connect [and] bring people from the US back to Jamaica [and] people from Jamaica to the US. He said the airlines’ leadership decided early in the pandemic to identify key potential destinations that would need to be connected, once countries globally lifted or relaxed travel restrictions, adding that Jamaica was definitely one of them. 
  • This augurs well for recovery in the tourism industry and indicates that there is demand for travel to Jamaica. It comes against the background of increased consumer confidence around travelling for vacation purposes. According to the US Conference survey of consumer confidence in October, 50% of Americans indicated that they plan to go on vacation within the next six months, the largest since February 2020. As the US market accounts for the largest share of visitors to Jamaica, this bodes well for the demand for our tourism product. 
  • Notwithstanding, the CDC’s risk assessment for COVID-19 for Jamaica could pose as a deterrent to some travelers as Jamaica is categorised at level 4. This means that persons should avoid travelling to the destination or be fully vaccinated before travel. The hope is that a continued downtrend in COVID-19 cases will result in a reduction in the island’s risk category ahead of the peak winter season.

(Source: JIS News & NCBCM Research)