A number of airlines have committed to boosting their airlifts to Antigua and Barbuda during both the summer and winter seasons.
Colin James, the Chief Executive Officer of the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority, says several meetings were held with different airlines during the recently concluded Routs America conference.
He says the conference was an excellent platform for the tourism authority to discuss the prospects of increasing airlifts to the islands with different airlines.
“What the good news is for this winter season, American Airlines is going on daily service out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and that is a major, major boost for Antigua and Barbuda. So with Jet Blue increasing from three times daily in the summer, Delta maintaining those two flights in the winter season, United is going back daily during the winter months. We are gonna see the airlift that we need to keep pace with the growth in rooms in Antigua and Barbuda, and so we’re gonna be seeing a really, really bumper year. I am looking forward to when the bell rings on December 31st, we’ve crunched those numbers to see just how well we’ve done, but it’s gonna be a remarkable season. We’ve seen it already, and I think we’re gonna see that trend continue, just not in the summer, but also going into the winter months as well.”
Meanwhile, there will also be increased flights from Canada
WestJet now usually has just one flight in the summer. It’s going to be two flights all year round coming into Antigua. And you know, we mentioned a few weeks ago that Condor is going to be restarting direct services from Frankfurt, Germany from November this year, right through to April next year, extending past the sailing period. So it’s going to be a longer season for that European, Central European flight. And we’re really, really excited that a key strategic focus of the tourism authority was to rebuild the airlift that we had prior to the pandemic. But we are almost at that point now, not just rebuilding it, we’re growing it to what it was. And that really bodes well for the destination we’re going from.”