Copa Airlines to boost summer arrivals

by Marlon Madden

Destination Barbados is expected to get a boost this summer from Latin America and its connecting markets with the return of Copa Airlines as of this month.

Starting June 15, with two weekly flights through its hub in Panama, Copa Airlines will return to Bridgetown on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The airline, which was forced to suspend service in 2020 like other airlines due to the COVID-19 pandemic, serves about 80 destinations in 33 countries.

Making the recent announcement of its return to Bridgetown, Copa officials also indicated that flights will return to St Maarten twice weekly (Wednesdays and Fridays), starting from June 1.

Minister of Tourism and International Transport Senator Lisa Cummins reported recently that she was expecting increased bookings to destination Barbados this summer, with increased flights from several destinations.

She explained that numbers should improve closer the date of travel since more people were booking summer trips last minute, compared to more advanced bookings for the winter season.

“We are still seeing the extrapolation coming from the pent-up demand where people haven’t been able to travel for the last two years.

“We saw that in winter and we expect that we are going to see that continuing throughout summer, and the numbers that are coming in to us already suggest that is going to be the case. So we are quite confident in what the summer season will look like,” Cummins said.

She pointed to expansion of airline seat capacity out of the US market and at least one new flight to come from a “non-traditional market” this month.

Two trial flights from Madrid, Spain, are also expected to get started in July, helping to beef up summer visits to Bridgetown.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb