Jamaica on Monday (Dec 2) welcomed the arrival of the first of three weekly scheduled nonstop flights by LATAM Airlines Groups between their major hub in Lima, Peru and Montego Bay, Jamaica.

The flight comes 18 months after Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett led a delegation of tourism officials into a meeting with senior executives of the Airlines Group at their headquarters in, Santiago, Chile.

A full LATAM flight (number 2464) departed Lima, Peru at 12:16 pm Monday and arrived at the Sangster International Airport just before 5 pm. A welcome party to include Jamaica’s tourism minister and stakeholders along with diplomats from Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru were on hand to receive the flight of 174 passengers.

Most of the passengers were from Argentina, Chile, Brazil and other South American countries.

View this post on Instagram Just touch down from Peru! 🇵🇪 Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett and other local Tourism officials were among the 174 passengers aboard the inaugural Lima to Mo-Bay flight which landed at 5:07 yesterday evening. Now making 3 weekly flights from Lima, Peru to Montego, Jamaica, this will increase the number of flights out of South America to 14, with COPA Airlines currently operating 11 weekly flights between Panama and Jamaica. #MinistryOfTourismA post shared by Ministry of Tourism (@tourismja) on Dec 3, 2019 at 12:25pm PST

Pablo Chiozza, former LATAM vice-president, noted that “the

addition of the Montego Bay-Lima route is part of our commitment to offer more

leisure travel options to our passengers. Montego Bay will be our fifth

destination in the Caribbean.â€

LATAM Airlines Group is Latin America’s largest airline group,

operating more than 1,200 flights per day, and transports 67 million passengers

per year. It has one of the largest route networks in the world, offering air

services to around 140 destinations in 25 countries, with a significant

presence in six domestic markets in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile,

Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.