Durrant Pate/Contributor

Delta Air Lines is resuming its non-stop New York to Kingston route, which it suspended during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Delta’s return to the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA), signals renewed confidence in Destination Jamaica as a burgeoning travel destinatio, as JFK-Kingston flights will be operating once weekly on Saturdays. 

Flight details

The move supplements existing service between Delta’s hub in Atlanta and Kingston, which operates daily. The JFK-Kingston flight leaves at 8:15 am out of New York, arriving in Kingston at around 12:26 pm. 

According to Delta’s website, prices for the New York-Kingston flight are starting as low as US$459 round trip for basic economy. This is the second major non-stop route Delta has relaunched to the Caribbean in the last month, following the airline’s high-profile relaunch of service to the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao after a 14-year hiatus.

A Caribbean Journal report finds that more airlines have been adding or expanding flight service to the capital, buoying Jamaica’s hopes to position Kingston as a new kind of urban tourism destination in the Caribbean—from its sizzling public art movement to a waterfront that is in the midst of a renaissance.

Kingston has been seeing a wave of new hotel development in recent years, including new hotels from brands like Hilton (the ROK hotel, which is part of Hilton’s Tapestry Collection) and AC Marriott, which is the product of a partnership between Marriott and Sandals Resorts International.