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New weekly nonstop flights from Germany, Panama to Montego Bay

Published:Thursday | July 19, 2018 | 10:24 AM
The runway at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay - File photo

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and other officials yesterday afternoon formally welcomed new nonstop flights by German airline, Eurowings, and Panama’s Copa Airlines at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.

 Eurowings made its inaugural weekly scheduled flight between the major German city of Munich and Montego Bay yesterday, while, Copa Airlines increased to daily, flights between Panama City and Montego Bay.

Jennifer Griffith, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism; Donovan White, Director of Tourism; Delano Seiveright, Senior Strategist and Advisor, Ministry of Tourism; Joy Roberts, Executive Director of Jamaica Vacations and Dr Rafael Echevarne, Chief Executive Officer of MBJ Airports Limited operators of the Sangster International Airport and several airlines executives and crew staff were on hand for the official engagements. 

“In line with our aggressive growth strategies in the European and Latin American markets, these new services will aide greatly in boosting tourist arrival numbers. For Germany, we are looking at bringing in 50,000 Germans to Jamaica’s shores within three years, after recording a 44 percent growth in German stopover arrivals in 2017 over the previous year with arrivals surging from 20,768 to 29,858 Germans,” Bartlett pointed out.

Meanwhile, for Latin America, Bartlett noted that, “we are working to double the number of tourists from that region to approximately 60,000 by 2021. The increased services by Copa, which bring to 11 the number of flights weekly by them between Panama City, one of Latin America’s largest hubs, and Jamaica. This feeds well into our Chilean, Argentinean, Brazilian and other major markets on that side.”

Director of the Jamaica Tourist Board Donovan White reiterated the importance of this new level of air connectivity, noting that, “Seamless air connectivity is critical in the JTB’s overall marketing strategy to get more visitors to our shores. There are even more developments coming on stream soon.” 

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