KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Government Cabinet has given its approval for the sale agreement between the national airline, Air Jamaica and Virgin Atlantic, for Air Jamaica’s London route operations.
Jamaica’s Minister of Information and Development, Donald Buchanan, made the disclosure at the (May 28), post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
Mr. Buchanan explained that Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. Omar Davies will give more details of the new agreement between the two airlines, shortly.
Air Jamaica will terminate its service to London in October and will enter into a code share agreement with Virgin Atlantic. Under this agreement, Air Jamaica’s code will be placed on all Virgin Atlantic flights between Jamaica and London.
Virgin Atlantic will operate two services per week between London Gatwick and Kingston, as well as two flights per week between Gatwick and Montego Bay. The sale agreement comes into effective in October.
Air Jamaica to codeshare with Virgin Atlantic
Under the agreement, Virgin Atlantic will operate four roundtrips per week from London Gatwick beginning October 30, with twice-weekly services to Kingston in addition to Virgin’s current twice-weekly services to Montego Bay.
The Virgin Atlantic code will be added to Air Jamaica’s domestic flights between Kingston and Montego Bay.
“This new partnership allows Air Jamaica to continue our UK presence through Virgin Atlantic’s much larger marketing and operational matrix. We’ll be able take advantage of Virgin Atlantic’s global network, and together we will feed and flow passengers through our common gateway cities in North America and the Caribbean.
Equally important, this agreement allows us to significantly improve our operating results by simplifying our operation and allowing us to concentrate on our core routes throughout the region with our narrow-bodied fleet,” said Mike Conway, Air Jamaica’s President and CEO.
Passengers presently ticketed on Air Jamaica for travel after October 28 will be accommodated on Virgin Atlantic at no additional cost.
Tickets for the new code share flights will go on sale immediately with the reservation networks of both airlines linked.
Under the agreement, passengers traveling between Jamaica and London Heathrow will also be able to take advantage of free stop-overs at common gateway cities at Miami, JFK, Newark, Chicago O’Hare, and Los Angeles, and with respect to London Gatwick, the same would apply to Orlando and Barbados.
