THE passage of Hurricane Melissa has resulted in Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Ratings adjusting their outlooks on Montego Bay Airport Revenue Finance Limited (MOAIR) and Kingston Airport Revenue Finance Limited (KINGAIR) whose underlying airports have faced disruption to passenger traffic.

Fitch Ratings has placed MOAIR on rating watch negative (RWN) with respect to its US$400-million bond with a BB+ credit rating. This means that the credit rating for this special purpose vehicle (SPV) might be lowered in the near term.

The move by Fitch comes amidst the uncertainty arising from the category five hurricane which has reduced the passenger traffic to Sangster International Airport (SIA), the underlying asset which backs the bond. Fitch indicated that there is elevated uncertainty related to the impact on the airport’s infrastructure, passenger traffic and ability for MOAIR to meet debt service payments without straining liquidity.

“It also reflects limited visibility into the timing of traffic recovery, given the airport’s reliance on high exposure to tourism demand and the timing and effectiveness of restoring critical national infrastructure and tourism assets,” Fitch added in its November 20 release.

Fitch noted that the December 2025 coupon or interest payment should be fully covered with liquidity available within the debt structure. When MOAIR issued its bond in July 2025, it was required to debt service reserve account (DSRA) equivalent to six months of interest payments or US$10.49 million. It also setup an accrual account with US$15 million.

“Fitch expects to resolve the RWN within six months as additional information becomes available on damage assessments, repair timelines, funding sources and recovery trends. Greater clarity on the near- to medium-term trajectory for tourism demand and progress on airport restoration will inform the resolution of the Rating Watch,” Fitch explained in its release.

The MOAIR bond was issued with a stable outlook in July with the proceeds of the bond to have been allocated by the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) to certain infrastructure projects such as increasing access to potable water, promoting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the country, and improving health facilities and equipment.

Fitch also placed National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCBJ), NCB Financial Group Limited (NCBFG), Jamaica Merchant Voucher Receivables Limited (JMVR) and Jamaica Diversified Payment Rights Company (JDPR) (NCBJ future flow programmes) on RWN within the last three weeks. Jamaica’s outlook was adjusted from positive to stable by Fitch while its credit rating remained at BB–.

Moody’s Ratings has changed the outlook of both MOAIR and KINGAIR from stable to negative due to the impact of Hurricane Melissa and the heightened risk of a protracted recovery for passenger traffic. Moody’s affirmed both SPV’s Ba3 credit rating which was supported by the six months DSRA. The rating agency expects MOAIR to draw on its liquidity reserves from the DSRA and accrual accounts during 2026 and in the first half of 2027 before traffic volumes normalise.

“We expect a material traffic decline during the last quarter of 2025 and the first half of 2026, followed by a gradual recovery. The region’s relatively small service area and reliance on tourism makes our projections highly dependent on the pace of restoration of surrounding lodging infrastructure and reconstruction efforts,” Moody’s Ratings noted on MOAIR.

Moody’s highlighted that the updated traffic forecasts at SIA include an annual passenger downturn of around 30 per cent relative to pre-hurricane levels in 2024. With respect to Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA), the underlying asset backing the KINGAIR bond, the revised forecast is for a downturn of 10 per cent relative to original traffic prospects.

According to airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V (Pacific Airport Group or GAP), traffic at SIA declined 17.6 per cent in October from 319,000 passengers to 263,000 passengers. NMIA’s passenger traffic also declined 13 per cent in October from 139,600 passengers to 121,500 passengers. SIA was closed between October 26 to October 30 when it resumed limited flights and opened for commercial flights on November 1. NMIA was closed from October 25 to October 29 with commercial flights resuming on October 30.

According to GAP’s 2024 annual report (20-F), 90 per cent of Jamaica’s hotel capacity was located between Negril and Ocho Rios. The Government of Jamaica’s March 2025 annual report also revealed that preliminary estimates showed tourism expenditure in Jamaica grew nine per cent to US$4.37 billion for the March 2024 financial year (FY). The country had a ten per cent increase in stopover arrivals to 2,958,410 visitors and cruise passenger arrivals of 1,351,912 visitors in the March 2024 FY. It was also stated that the tourism industry was Jamaica’s leading gross earner of foreign exchange and accounted for 72.3 per cent of foreign exchange earnings from the productive sector in 2024, excluding remittance inflows.

Under the current methodology used by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, 8.2 per cent of the labour force is employed by the tourism sector with 116,300 directly employed persons in the accommodation sub-sector. After being closed in February 2024 due to damage from extreme weather, the Ocho Rios Port reopened on November 12 which will support businesses in that area.

While the two main international airports have reopened, the reopening schedule of the island’s hotel resorts continues to change based on ongoing assessments. Riu Hotels & Resorts indicated on Monday that it was ready to reopen all of its seven resorts before the end of the year. Sandals Resorts International (SRI) indicated that it would reopen five resorts by December 6 and three other resorts by May 2026. Adam Stewart is the executive chairman of SRI and the Jamaica Observer.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation’s eight all-inclusive islands in Jamaica are set to resume bookings on February 1 while Princess Hotels and Resorts will reopen its two hotels in February to March 2026. Royalton Hotels and Resorts noted that two of its properties would reopen by August 2026. Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts will be renovating its two Jamaican resorts which has led to a redundancy exercise. There are currently 25 resorts with 2026 reopening dates.

There is a December 15 date for Jamaica’s tourism industry to be back in operation according to Minister Edmund Bartlett. This is supported by the Hurricane Melissa Recovery Task Force which is chaired by John Byles and the Tourism Resilience Coordination Committee which is chaired by SRI’s Jessica Shannon.

Readers can check the status of hotels and their reopening dates at
https://www.visitjamaica.com/travel-alerts/hotel-reopenings/ while the status of attractions can be viewed at https://www.visitjamaica.com/travel-alerts/tours-attractions-reopenings/.