Tourism Minister, 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.