Opposition questions Gov’t response to soaring airfares to Jamaica

Opposition Spokesperson on Tourism and Linkages, Andrea Purkiss has called on Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett to explain what is being done to stop the decline in visitor arrivals and the soaring cost of air travel to Jamaica.

“Somewhere in Fort Lauderdale this morning there is a Jamaican woman wondering if she can afford to bury her mother,” Purkiss said in a press release Tuesday. “Ninety minutes of flying, but she’s being asked to pay US$3,700. That is not a fare. That is a wall.”

Checks in mid-August showed American Airlines quoting US$3,744 return between Montego Bay and Miami, with JetBlue’s Fort Lauderdale flights repeatedly sold out, the Opposition said.