MONTEGO BAY, St James — Following aggressive traffic growth during the first half of this year, the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ) has cautiously fast-forwarded by three years its projected recovery for the country’s aviation industry. The sector, like many others, was crippled by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“Given this forecast for 2022, it is now expected that Jamaica’s aviation traffic will hit the 2019 level of 6.5 million passengers by December 2023. This is instead of the originally forecasted timeline of 2026 — all of three years earlier,” stated president and CEO of AAJ, Audley Deidrick.

He was addressing an MBJ Airports Ltd-hosted virtual forum on Monday to provide an update on the airport’s initiatives, achievements and major projects aimed at long-term economic recovery.

The country’s sea and air ports were closed to incoming passenger traffic on March 21, 2020 — just 11 days after Jamaica recorded its first imported case of COVID-19. On July 15 the Government reopened the borders, on a phased basis, to incoming passenger traffic.

Since then, tourism-related activity has accounted for a sharp increase in arrivals at the country’s largest port, the Sangster International Airport (SIA), which contributed to overall growth. The uptick was particularly noticeable in May and June.

“This current year, 2022, has shown the sharpest climb on the recovery curve, and hence my characterising this year as the rapid-drive phase of the recovery process. From a sluggish start in the first quarter of 2020, our aviation traffic was driven, as usual, by tourism traffic — which represents over 80 per cent — resulting in a rapid growth such that, for the month of May and June the traffic for MBJ has equalled that of the corresponding months of 2019,” said Deidrick.

Addressing the same forum on Monday, Shane Munroe, the CEO of MBJ Airports Ltd which operators SIA, noted that SIA has seen a 2.1-million or a 120 per cent jump in passenger traffic for the first half of 2022 when compared to 2021. However this, he said, is a 17 per cent reduction compared to 2019.

Deidrick provided the numbers for 2020 which he described as “the most heavily hit year”.

“Jamaica’s aviation traffic was 2.2 million passengers or 67 per cent below the 2019 level of 6.5 million passengers. The recovery continued into 2021 with total traffic of 3.4 million passengers or 52 per cent of the 2019 traffic level,” he reported.

Also during the event, Minister of Transport and Mining Audley Shaw spoke of the Government’s strong support for the aviation sector.

“The Government of Jamaica, through the Ministry of Transport and Mining and its agencies, reiterates its commitment to making aviation in Jamaica a force to be reckoned with and pledges its commitment to supporting and developing the sector,” stated Shaw.

“We have a joint task force — between the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ), the Ministry of Transport and Mining (MTM), Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) — working with [the] Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to make it easier to fly into Jamaica on private planes and therefore increasing general aviation activities,” he added.