Brent Pin­heiro

brent.pin­heiro@guardian.co.tt

Al­most 5 years af­ter the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic forced Caribbean Air­lines (CAL) to stop fly­ing out of Mon­tego Bay, Ja­maica the lo­cal car­ri­er re­sumed dai­ly non­stop ser­vice be­tween Sang­ster In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port (MBJ) and the Fort Laud­erdale-Hol­ly­wood In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port (FLL) on Tues­day. The air­line is us­ing a leased Boe­ing 737-800NG with an all-econ­o­my cab­in on the route - of­fer­ing 189 seats on each sec­tor for a to­tal of 1,323 seats per week in each di­rec­tion. The air­line says the de­ci­sion to restart the Mon­tego Bay ser­vice was based on cus­tomer feed­back and tar­get­ed to­wards the 300,000+ Ja­maicans liv­ing in Fort Laud­erdale and the sur­round­ing ar­eas.

Caribbean Airlines CEO, Garvin Medera, addresses passengers and stakeholders. Photo: Caribbean Airlines

At an event cel­e­brat­ing the in­au­gur­al flight, Caribbean Air­lines CEO, Garvin Med­era, told pas­sen­gers and stake­hold­ers, “We un­der­stand the deep con­nec­tions be­tween Ja­maica and its Di­as­po­ra, and this dai­ly ser­vice be­tween Mon­tego Bay and Fort Laud­erdale is an­oth­er way we are mak­ing it eas­i­er for our cus­tomers to get home. We are de­light­ed to re­in­state this route, dri­ven by the needs of our pas­sen­gers, and we re­main com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing con­ve­nient, re­li­able, and heart­felt ser­vice to our Ja­maican fam­i­ly.”

Caribbean Airlines’ all-economy Boeing 737-800NG is given a water cannon salute at Sangster International Airport. Photo: Caribbean Airlines.

The lo­cal car­ri­er al­so be­gan dai­ly non­stop ser­vice be­tween Ja­maica’s cap­i­tal, Kingston and Fort Laud­erdale on Tues­day – mov­ing from a 3x week­ly ser­vice that be­gan in De­cem­ber 2024. This ser­vice al­so adds 1,323 seats per week in each di­rec­tion to the mar­ket as the same air­craft is be­ing used for both the Kingston and the Mon­tego Bay ser­vices. In a me­dia re­lease, CAL said its re­turn to Mon­tego Bay, and the ex­pan­sion of the Kingston route is part of its growth strat­e­gy and aligns with the air­line’s strate­gic plan to “ex­pand con­nec­tiv­i­ty across the re­gion”. Amer­i­can car­ri­ers Jet­Blue and Spir­it Air­lines al­so op­er­ate flights be­tween Mon­tego Bay/Kingston and Fort Laud­erdale.