Southwest Airlines to deepen its relationship with Jamaica

Southwest Airlines is looking to deepen its current relationship with Jamaica and will, during the course of the year, examine a proposal to expand its services into Kingston.

This was revealed during a discussion between Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Audrey Marks, and the senior director of strategic planning & airline partnerships for Southwest Airlines, Steven Swan, who, along with the senior manager for governmental affairs and international & political programmes for the airline, Jenn Poeppelmeier, paid a courtesy call on the ambassador on February 7 at the Embassy of Jamaica in Washington, DC.

The discussions centred on deepening the current relationship between Southwest Airlines and Jamaica including a proposal to expand service into Kingston and utilising Jamaica as a hub to accelerate Southwest’s international expansion.

While these proposals were met with positive reactions, the Southwest team maintained that there was a need to strengthen domestic operations.

The Southwest team will be travelling to Jamaica this year to gain further exposure to the island’s aviation sector and to identify and consider growth opportunities to the island, Swan said.

In July 2014, Jamaica welcomed the first non-stop international flight from Southwest Airlines with an inaugural flight from Baltimore-Washington International Airport which landed at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.

This marked the start of non-stop service from three of Southwest’s major hubs in the US to Montego Bay, Jamaica. The Baltimore-Washington route will operate twice daily from Baltimore Washington International into Montego Bay.

The airline also operates a daily service to Montego Bay out of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International and Orlando International Airport.