KINGSTON, Jamaica – Senior Advisor and Strategist in the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright noted that the collaborative work led by Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and his officials over the last three years continues to bear significant fruit.

The comments came while Jamaica is readying for several new and inaugural nonstop flights in December, on top of several other new nonstop flights launched in recent weeks.

Among the new flights are nonstop flights between London, United Kingdom and Montego Bay in St James, by new European airline, Norse Atlantic Airways starting December 1; nonstop flights between Toronto, Canada and Montego Bay by Canadian airline, Jetlines starting December 9 and nonstop flights between Toronto, Canada and Kingston by Canadian airline, Flair starting December 16, a statement on wednesday said.

Seiveright also noted that these new flights are coming in addition to new flights launched over the last several weeks including Southwest Airlines nonstop flights between Kansas City, Missouri, United States (US) and Montego Bay and United Airlines nonstop flights between Denver, Colorado, US and Montego Bay.

“Already for the year, January to November 29, preliminary figures indicate that some 2.5 million stopover visitors have graced our shores. This is an 18 per cent increase over the same period in 2022 and a 10 per cent increase over the same period in pre-pandemic 2019. If we continue on this impressive growth trajectory, we will be on track to meet our new projections of four million visitors and foreign exchange earnings of US$4.1 billion by year end,” the statement read.