KINGSTON, Jamaica— Canadian airline, Swoop, has expanded service to Jamaica with the addition of bi-weekly non-stop flights between Toronto and Kingston on Wednesdays and Fridays.

These are in addition to four weekly flights now provided from Toronto and Hamilton to Montego Bay on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

The inaugural flight into Kingston arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) from Toronto on Wednesday (December 8), with 142 passengers and crew.

They were accompanied by Swoop’s Head of Commercial and Finance, Bert van der Stege.

Officials on hand to welcome them included: Acting Deputy Director of Tourism, Marketing, Peter Mullings; Canada’s High Commissioner to Jamaica, Her Excellency Emina Tudakovic; Executive Director, Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Camille Needham; and Executive Director, Jamaica Vacations Limited, Joy Roberts.

Mullings, who welcomed the new service, thanked Swoop for their confidence in Jamaica as a destination, particularly Kingston.

“I think this shows that there is a great opportunity for us here to really expand and take advantage of the airline coming in. It [also] shows that we have a lot of demand in Jamaica, not only from Canadians, but also the Diaspora,” he said.

High Commissioner Tudakovic said the new service has expanded flight options from Canada to Jamaica and encouraged travellers to utilise it.

Needham, who noted that the service “is going to do a lot for us,” said the JHTA has been working assiduously to promote Kingston and show that the capital city has the potential to be an attractive tourist destination.

“There are so many things that are exciting and peculiar to Kingston… [and we] have a lot of high hopes for the success of [these flights],” Needham added.

Roberts said Kingston is an important location for the Canadian market, while also noting the significant Diaspora representation in the North American country.

 “So, we’re happy to have Swoop coming in out of an important market such as Canada,” she added.

Chief Operating Officer at PAC Kingston Airport Limited, which operates NMIA, Dale Davis, said the entity is “particularly pleased” with Swoop’s vote of confidence in Jamaica, especially Kingston.

“Two flights a week [into Kingston] represent a big boost for us in terms of our traffic, which has been devastated by COVID-19. So we are looking forward to even more flights, and we will do all we can to support you,” he said.

Van der Stege, for his part, said Swoop was happy to be providing the new service, adding that “as we collectively recover from the devastating impact that COVID-19 had on our industry, we’re looking forward to adding more flights between Jamaica and Canada in [the] future.”

Swoop, a subsidiary of WestJet, is based at Hamilton International Airport in Ontario and offers flights to destinations in Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and the United States.