NEW YORK, NY-- Delta, American Eagle and Continental airlines are set to expand flights to Caribbean gateways next month while Air Jamaica and Northwest are set to add more flights from January.
American Eagle will increase its service to Anguilla, adding two daily flights departing from San Juan starting Dec. 14, 2006 while Continental will add non-stop flight from Newark, NJ to Bonaire starting Dec. 16, 2006.
On Dec. 15, 2006, Delta will add a daily non-stop flight from Atlanta to Puerto Plata, Dominican and on Dec. 16th, offer non-stop service from Atlanta to Martinique every Saturday. Delta also plans to add a daily non-stop flight from Atlanta to Santiago, Dominican Republic with connections via New York and New Jersey as well as a daily non-stop and one-stop flight from New York (JFK International Airport) to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (with the one-stop in Atlanta) starting Dec. 9, 2006. And on Feb. 17, 2007, Delta will introduce a new weekly nonstop service between Atlanta and Tobago's Crown Point International Airport.
Come Jan. 11, 2007, Air Jamaica will increase flights to St. Lucia with continuing service to Barbados while Northwest Airlines will add a new non-stop flight from Detroit Metropolitan Airport to the Cyril E. King Airport in St. Thomas from Jan. 6, 2007.
“The continued rise in air service to and through the region reflects the airlines’ tremendous level of confidence in the Caribbean and its attractiveness to vacationers,” commented Hugh Riley, director of marketing for the Americas of the Caribbean Tourism Organization. “New and expanded air service is making it extremely easy for travelers to experience the vast diversity of the Caribbean by island hopping their way around the region.”
The increase in flights to several popular Caribbean destinations comes as the U.S. passport rule or the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative is set to become a reality in January 8, 2007. The rule will require that all U.S. nationals flying to the Caribbean, Canada, Central and South America, Bermuda and Mexico, ensure they have a passport inorder to be allowed re-entry.
Cruise ship passengers have been given until 2009, a move by Congress that has been criticized by Caribbean tourism officials. Even as sources tell HBN that a top US Department of Homeland Security official, in a closed-door session at the recent Carib News conference in Panama, said he was not approached on the concerns of the travel rule on the Caribbean by lobbyists and tourism officials.
Caribbean tourism officials, at the recently concluded Caribbean Tourism Conference in the Bahamas, had vowed to take a lobbying team to Washington to protest the September 29th bill, passed in the House. But to date the lobbying team effort has reportedly not occurred with officials saying they were waiting until after the mid-term elections to kick the plan into gear.
This as countries like Aruba and Jamaica push forward with plans aimed at incentivizing travel to their islands to continue to lure American travelers who make up a chunk of their tourist market.
