Sunday, 22nd December 2024

Winair’s Christmas flights to SVG sold out in less than two weeks of launch

Winair, which reportedly kicked off flights to the country just two weeks ago, has been booked completely with travellers eager to visit the twin island nation for the holiday season.

Friday, 6th December 2024

St Vincent and the Grenadines: The tourism officials in St Vincent and the Grenadines are reporting a surge in travel to the island nation for the Christmas holidays, with one of the newest airlines servicing the destination already being fully booked.  

Winair, which reportedly kicked off flights to the country just two weeks ago, has been booked completely with travellers eager to visit the twin island nation for the holiday season.  

According to the Chief Executive Officer of the airline Hans Van De Velde, the airline has successfully established inter-regional connectivity to St Vincent and the Grenadines.  

CEO Hans, while speaking during a news conference on Tuesday at the Argyle International Airport, confirmed that the demand for flights is evident, with booking filling up quickly.  

The CEO further noted that Winair is also planning to introduce direct flights to New York in the near future.  

He outlined, “Saint Vincent was quite a hassle, and starting a new route is always a bit of an adventure because people can be convinced there's a market but you don't know, so we tried carefully and we said, okay, let’s do two flights a week between Sint Marteen and Saint Lucia and St Vincent on Tuesdays and Saturdays.” 

Hans highlighted that the air carrier started sales about six weeks ago and after one week, they knew they had a hit.  

“After a few weeks, Christmas was sold out. The first flight was sold out and we are very happy to say that after six weeks of sales or eight weeks of sales, this flight is now top three best sellers of our whole program.” 

Talking about the new route to New York, the CEO remarked that not now but within a few weeks, travelers will be able to book on the airline’s website flights to St Vincent to New York.  

“It's not that we fly to New York, but with one stop in Saint Vincent, you connect to JetBlue, and it's no longer needed to buy two separate tickets. You just book one ticket on our website and all is taken care of. So that's the kind of developments we are looking at,” he added.  

Notably, the airline launched its flights to Barbados, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines for the busy winter season and this expansion marked a major step forward in making regional travel more accessible, fostering Caribbean unity and boosting economies.  

The airline is set to operate twice every week on Tuesdays, direct to Saint Lucia from St Maarten while on Saturdays, the flights will operate via St Vincent.