Barbados is counting on a number of upcoming new and increased airline services from various tourism markets to boost visitor arrivals.
Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy on Friday announced that a new American Airlines direct service from Dallas Fort Worth to Barbados will be launched on December 16. The A757 with a seating capacity of 188 will be operating three times a week, arriving on Thursday, Friday and Monday.
According to Sealy, bookings have been encouraging.
He anticipated the new service would open up the western United States “in a way it had not been open previously”, a factor Sealy considered important since Barbados currently gets 70 per cent of its United States business from the north-east United States.
Sealy reported the JetBlue Service, started last October, had already transported 85 000 passengers to and from Barbados, representing over 20 per cent of the island’s tourist arrivals.
Barbados was also anticipating increased airlift from an additional British Airways Flight, bringing the number to two weekly, Sealy said. The additional service begins from March 2011, bringing the total number of weekly British Airways flights to Barbados to 12.
In addition, Virgin Atlantic is introducing a second Manchester Flight and Sealy noted the complementary operation of the two airlines and the “strong relationships” Barbados enjoyed with them.
The Tourism Minister also confirmed another CONDOR flight had already been secured out of Germany, resulting in two weekly flights from Germany to Barbados.
Tourism officials were also engaged in talks with Air Berlin, while exploring with Air Canada the possibility of a direct service out of western Canada.
