BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Chairman of the Barbados Tourism Authority, Peter Odle, has welcomed Air Jamaica’s new daily non-stop service between New York and Barbados as “100 per cent positive”.
Speaking before the new daily flights between New York and Barbados began on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007, the tourism chief said the development, which followed the decision by the new Caribbean Airlines (formerly BWIA West Indies Airways) to pull out from this route, was positive for leisure, VFR (Visiting, Friends and Family) and other markets.
“The Barbados Tourism Authority moved quickly to the plate once we realized what was happening. (We) approached Air Jamaica and they responded in the way that we hoped they would,” said Odle, who is also the president of the Caribbean Hotel Association. We are hoping that it is going to be a long term partnership for Barbados.
Odle’s comments were echoed by Barbadian Patrick Cozier, Secretary General of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, who said Barbadians should be grateful for the new service. “New York is one of the critical points for supplying tourism into Barbados and to have that market relatively un-serviced would create a vulnerability for our tourism market that we really can’t afford,” he said.
Cozier also called for a solution to the void left by Caribbean Airlines between Barbados and Miami that would allow for traffic between the south and southeastern USA and Barbados. “That is a call that Air Jamaica would have to make, (and) I certainly would float it out there for their consideration,” he said.
Air Jamaica will operate daily Airbus A-320 service between John F. Kennedy International (JFK) Airport in New York and Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados with 138 seats in Economy and 12 in Executive Business Class. This service will continue to St. Lucia four (4) days a week and to Grenada three (3) days a week.
This new schedule will also offer daily direct service to Montego Bay, Jamaica via St. Lucia or Grenada, offering further connections to and from Air Jamaica’s US gateways in Atlanta, Baltimore/Washington DC, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Miami, New York (JFK) and Philadelphia.
