Barbados' Airlift Capacity Surges, Boosting Tourism Growth: BHTA Chairman Reports

Barbados is experiencing an unprecedented surge in airlift capacity, marking a pivotal moment for tourism, Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), Renee Coppin has reported.

Coppin was delivering her final remarks as chairman during the BHTA’s annual general meeting on Monday, where she unveiled a series of significant developments.

Despite the imminent loss of a much-touted air link with the Cayman Islands owing to poor passenger numbers, the hotel association leader has signalled major developments in Britain, the island’s leading source of visitors, and an unprecedented number of daily flights to Barbados from number two source market US.

Beginning with airlift out of the United Kingdom market, she said: “Effective Winter ‘24/’25, Norse Atlantic [Airways] will suspend its London Gatwick to Barbados [leg] and operate charter flights in cooperation with P&O Cruises out of London Gatwick and Manchester.”

She emphasised the significance of Virgin Atlantic’s decision to again deploy the Airbus A350-1000, highlighting its superior onboard product and an extra 61 seats per flight over the aircraft currently operating the route.

Moving to the United States, Coppin unveiled projections suggesting a 14.2 per cent increase over 2019, with 410 025 seats expected by year-end. She noted that this growth is propelled by Caribbean Airlines and Frontier Airlines’ introduction of thrice-weekly flights from San Juan to Barbados in a substantial boost in monthly capacity.

While acknowledging steady growth in Canada and the Caribbean markets, Coppin noted a slight dip in European airlift. But she remained optimistic about the overall trajectory: “Overall, we are doing significantly better with our airlift in 2024 and 2025 is poised to be another record-breaking year on the current trajectory.”

“The US market for the first time ever is currently scheduled to eclipse 50 000 seats in one month in January 2025 with 50 048 seats scheduled and again in March 2025 it rises to 55 532 seats when United Airlines takes their Newark service back to daily for March and April,” she revealed.

The outgoing BHTA chairman also added that American Airlines will cement its place as the country’s largest US carrier with over 27 000 seats a month into Barbados as of next winter with Saturdays being the single busiest day with some 14 flights from across the US scheduled for landing here.

“Our island has never been this accessible from the USA,” said Coppin. “We must thank Minister of Tourism and International Transport Ian Gooding-Edghill and his team at the BTMI for their continued diligence at correcting the deficit we previously faced in our source markets and getting us to where we are today.”

Coppin, who later handed over the reins of the association’s leadership to Javon Griffith, also thanked him for what she described as his “enlightening and accurate reporting of [BHTA’s] airlift over the past two and a half years”