THE largest airline corporation in Latin America, LATAM Airlines is to resume non-stop flights to Jamaica come next summer.

Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett announced the resumption of non-stop flights for the summer of 2024 following discussions on Thursday with top executives from LATAM airlines in Chile.

In 2019 LATAM Airlines operated three weekly flights to Montego Bay, St James, with convenient connections from cities in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. The route was operated by Airbus A320 aircraft with capacity for 174 passengers, offering a total of 52,600 seats.

“The resumption of airlift from the largest airline in Latin America bodes well for our push to increase arrivals from this lucrative and important region. We were well on our way to leverage this airlift in 2019, and then COVID-19 halted our progress.

“Chile is our second-largest market in the region so it is truly gratifying to be in discussions now to build on what we started,” said Bartlett.

He noted that as a precursor, LATAM Airlines has committed to exploring alternative options with other partners to begin connecting flights as early as November this year. The suggested route would be from Chile to Atlanta to Montego Bay.

“This opportunity will be a great start to the strengthening of our partnership with LATAM Airlines and will whet the appetite for travel between Jamaica and the region. The timing is also perfect as it would coincide with the Pan American Games that will see huge marketing opportunities,” said Donovan White, director of tourism.

Bartlett is in Latin America with a team of senior tourism representatives as part of a high-level, strategic re-engagement of tourism partners in the region.

He is targeting 250,000 visitors from Latin America over the next five years as part of his ministry’s move to re-engage that market.