By Durrant Pate/Contributor

American carrier, Delta Air Lines has announced increased flights to Jamaica from US cities joining other airlines in beefing up flights to the island.

Officials at Delta Airlines, earlier this week told the leadership of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) that it is increasing the country’s airline seat capacity for the 2022/23 season by more than one per cent compared with the same period in pre-pandemic 2019/20.

The officials confirmed that the airline has re-launched daily Jamaica flights from Detroit and Minneapolis in 2022 and 2023 for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Delta is offering non-stop flights to Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport from Boston, Minneapolis, New York and Atlanta and to Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport from Atlanta via multiple weekly departures.

Earlier this week American low-cost carrier, JetBlue announced that it is sending more flights to Jamaica’s tourism hub and the second city of Montego Bay from the United States.

This latest announcement comes one week after another American low-cost carrier, Frontier Airlines announced expanded service to Jamaica and Montego Bay, in particular. Come next month going into July, Frontier will kick off new, non-stop service to Montego Bay.

Jamaica’s tourism officials elated

Commenting on the announcement by Delta, Donovan White, director of tourism, described the move as “a distinct vote of confidence in the ongoing recovery of tourism to Jamaica.”

“This is a clear indication from one of our top airline partners that we are well on our way toward returning our stopover arrivals to growth over 2019, the year when we received our highest number of stopover visitors to date,” White added.

Minister Edmund Bartlett told tourism interest earlier this month that “Jamaica is perhaps the most connected destination in the region. This has helped us to attract more visitors. We have been focused and always looking ahead even in the midst of the worst of the pandemic. We are now reaping the rewards.”

Continuing, Bartlett said, “we continue to see positive signs of a strong recovery for Jamaica’s tourism and more seats mean more arrivals.”

He said Destination Jamaica is now reaping the rewards highlighting that the island recently lifted all of its pre-testing requirements for travelers.