Copa airline resumes its flights to Jamaica after closure of borders

Copa Airlines resumed its functions to Jamaica on Monday with a flight from Tocumen Airport in Panama City, Panama, landing at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay with some 98 passengers and seven crew features on board.

It was the airline’s initial flight to the island, after the closedown of the country’s borders earlier this year as part of steps to stem the contamination of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) Regional Director, Odette Dyer, in her comments at a press briefing shortly after the flight landed, greeted the boost to tourism that will be created by the return of Copa.

She noted that the resumption would also strengthen the JTB’s efforts to get into the Latin American market. COPA Airlines co-operations more than 80 gateways in Latin America.

“This arrival of the flight is significant because it gave us hope that Jamaica will reflect and bounce back. Our tourism business will ricochet in short order. ." she sted.

Furthermore, she stated that these steps encourage them at the JTB to continue doing the work that they do, which is to market destination Jamaica so that it remains the premier tourism stop in the Caribbean,” she continued.

For her part, Statistics and Air Service Development Analyst at MBJ Airports Limited, Nadia Anglin-Nolan, informed that the carrier would operate one flight per week on Mondays, coming at 12:35 p.m. and departing 1:35 p.m.

“We are hopeful that we will see an improvement in the number of weekly flights from the airline. As you know, a lot of airlines are just resuming [flights to Jamaica], and they have to really gauge the demand and then increase the service in response to what the market is really articulating,” she stated.

Mrs Anglin-Nolan emphasised that some 56 travellers were certainly confirmed for the outgoing Copa Airlines flight that afternoon.

Besides this, Nadine Spence,- Chairman of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association’s (JHTA) Montego Bay Chapter, stated that stakeholders in the tourism sector are delighted to see airlines returning flights to the island.

“The majority of the airlines are in a wait-and-see position [so] for those who have set deadlines and stayed true to those deadlines, we are truly happy. Today, Copa has shown that they believe in Jamaica, they assume in the brand. In speaking to the crew, they said they felt elated to come back to Jamaica; they like the people; they like the location,” Ms Spence said.

The island’s borders were closed to incoming travellers in March due to COVID-19 and reopened in June.