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WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao, Oct 22 2015, CNS – JetBlue already flies 150 flights a day into the region and the airline’s President and Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes announced Thursday that there’s more to come.
“Earlier this week we announced plans to bring the Airbus 321 to Port-au-Prince, Haiti and also increase our flights to Haiti from Boston, New York and Fort Lauderdale in response to growing travel demand and that also includes a growing element of tourist traffic,” Hayes said.
“In total we will increase our seats to Haiti by more than 50,000 in the coming year, an increase of 80 percent since JetBlue entered the market two years ago.
“Next year we have 10 aircraft entering our fleet and the year after that, in 2017, we have another 10 coming. We need places to fly these airplanes and a lot of them are coming south to the Caribbean,” Hayes added.
The JetBlue official was delivering the keynote address at the annual State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC) of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO).
He also announced that JetBlue will be expanding it service between Curacao and New York with a third weekly flight from the end of next year.
“We’ve only been here since December 2013 but the island has quickly proven to be a big hit with our customers,” Hayes said.
Beginning in April 2016 JetBlue will also start a daily non-stop service between Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport and Barbados.
“Both Barbados and Curacao are terrific examples where we’ve built long-term partnerships with the ministers of tourism, airports and private sector partners,” Hayes said.
JetBlue’s continued Caribbean expansion will also see the launch of a direct service to Antigua from New York’s JFK International Airport beginning November 5.
The flights will depart Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Morning flights from JFK will depart 9:20 a.m. and arrive at Antigua’s V.C. Bird International Airport at 2:34 p.m. Return flights will depart Antigua at 3:30 p.m. and arrive at JFK at 7:18 p.m.
Curaçao is this week hosting the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC). This year’s conference, which has as its theme, Caribbean Tourism: Growth Through Innovation, is organised in collaboration with Curaçao’s Ministry of Economic Development and the Curaçao Tourism Board, with support from United Nations tourism agency, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). It is being held at the World Trade Center in Willemstad.
