American Airlines Expands St. Kitts Service

American Airlines will launch a second weekly non-stop flight between New York‘s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and St. Kitts’ Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport this winter, said St. Kitts Tourism Authority announced.

American will launch the new Wednesday departures beginning December 18, complementing American’s existing non-stop service on Saturdays. The flights will utilize 176-seat Boeing 757 and 160-seat Boeing 738 aircraft, each with 16 business class seats.

“It’s wonderful to receive this additional service from a valued partner, which provides visitors and diaspora alike with more ways to get to island from our primary source market,” said Lindsay F.P. Grant, minister of tourism, international trade, industry and commerce.

“The addition of mid-week service year-round from the New York metropolitan area indicates a growth in the marketplace concurrent with our marketing initiatives,” said Racquel Brown, CEO of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority.

She said the latest addition to St. Kitts’ growing flight schedule builds on the Tourism Authority’s visitor growth strategy. American recently introduced summer non-stop flights to St. Kitts from Dallas, said Brown.

American earlier expanded twice-daily service from Miami International Airport to five days a week beginning in 2017, she added. “This new service is part of our specific strategy to grow our tourism industry by building out airlift from select target gateways with our air partners to support the destination’s expanding hotel product,” said Brown.

This year’s expanded flight schedule is reflected in higher early 2019 visitor arrivals, say Tourism Authority officials. Air arrivals from all carriers increased 14.5 percent year-over-year in the first four months of 2019, compared with the same period in 2018. Meanwhile, air arrivals from all North American carriers increased 17.2 percent between January and April of 2019 compared with 2018.