Minister Bartlett: Jamaica recovered all lost seats from Thomas Cook collapse

Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett says that Jamaica has recovered all the lost seats following Sunday’s collapse of Thomas Cook, which flies a significant number of visitors to the island from Manchester, England.

“Today Jamaica became the first country to conclude fully, all the arrangements to recover the loss airlift occasioned by the collapse of Thomas Cook,” said Minister Bartlett.

The Minister, who is currently in London for the Jamaica Travel Market, also noted that all partners have responded positively to Jamaica and his Ministry is projecting an increase in flights from the region for the upcoming winter season.

“We have met with all our key partners, our three major airlines – TUI, Virgin and British Airways and we have completely restored all the seats that would have been lost for the period and we are expecting additional arrivals for the winter,” said the Minister

He also noted that Jamaica will increase rotations but the exact number of new seats for the winter season will be announced when he returns to the island.

During a press briefing on Tuesday, the Minister stated that Thomas Cook was expected to fly 16 charters to Jamaica between now and March 2020. Those charters represent 7,300 visitors to Jamaica and a potential loss of US$10 million in tourism spend.

“The fallout that we expect will be minimal in terms of the six rotations that are immediate. The way we look at it is that they will be re-booking with some of the other carriers like Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, and so on. That would minimize that fallout, so instead of the 1,800, we could recoup about 900,” said Minister Bartlett during the briefing.

The Minister and the Director of Tourism, Mr Donovan White, will return to the island on September 30, 2019.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944