Jamaica? No problem. New nonstop flight to Montego Bay will launch from Hartford’s Bradley International Airport
Low cost carrier Spirit Airlines will launch a nonstop flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica, from Bradley International Airport in December, capping a 15-year grassroots push for the service by the area’s Caribbean community, the fifth largest in the country.
“The creation of the flights will bring ease and convenience to travel,” Andrew Lawrence, founder of the Caribbean Trade Council in Hartford, said at a press conference at Bradley Thursday.
The flight, Lawrence said, will eliminate driving hundreds of miles to either New York or Boston for a direct flight to visit family and friends or to vacation in Jamaica.
“No need to connect to other cities to get to Jamaica and spend endless hours waiting for your connections,” Lawrence said.
The service is scheduled to launch Dec. 15 and will operate year-round, four times a week. A check of Spirit’s website Thursday showed the cost of a round-trip ticket departing Dec. 15 and returning Dec. 22 at $396.
Lawrence, an early proponent of bringing the service to Bradley, said the service to Jamaica also will foster both tourism and trade between the Caribbean island and Connecticut.
“Inbound products to Connecticut might include popular Jamaican food items, including prepared foods, spices, sauces and beverages,” Lawrence said. “Outbound cargo will include Connecticut-made and grown products.”
Support for the nonstop flight was broad, ranging from community activists and airport officials to state and local elected officials, many of whom attended Thursday’s press briefing.
The state has agreed to provide $2 million in incentives over the next two year for the launch. Under the deal, the state would provide up to $1 million a year to Spirit, if the airline does not meet revenue goals for the flight out of Bradley.
“My hope and belief is that this is a phenomenally successful flight and that ultimately the state guarantee is not utilized,” David Lehman, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, said in an interview after the press conference.
In July, Spirit agreed to merge with JetBlue in a deal valued at $3.8 million. Until the deal is completed in the first half of 2024, the two airlines will continue to operate independently. If the Jamaica flight from Bradley is a success, it is likely to continue beyond the merger, officials said.
Gov. Ned Lamont hailed the nonstop flight to Jamaica as among the growing number of direct flights added this year alone at Bradley.
“There are more direct flights today than we’ve ever had, certainly, even more than pre-pandemic,” Lamont said. “And this is part of what we’re trying to do in the state of Connecticut: grow and expand. This airport is a big piece of that. Jamaica’s a big piece of that. Spirit is a great piece of that.”
State Rep. Bobby Gibson, a Democrat and vice chairman of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, helped lead support for the flight and framed the introduction of the flight as a “social justice initiative.”
“To have the fifth largest population of Jamaicans in the whole country in this area and not have nonstop service, to have our elderly have to go to New York or Boston, do transfers and things of that nature, that is an injustice to them,” Gibson said.
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.
