Barbados’ bid to claim the American West and capture more of the United States market received a tremendous fillip on Thursday night when the inaugural flight of American Airlines 514 from Dallas/Fort Worth landed at Grantley Adams International Airport to a high-powered reception.
Minutes after captain Myles Mitchell parked the fully booked 757 while waving the American and Barbadian flags from the cockpit’s window, many of the top local tourism players lined the tarmac to welcome the 188 passengers.
Among the passengers were Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) director David Rice and deputy chairman Austin Husbands.
On the tarmac were Minister of International Business and International Transport George Hutson; US Embassy Charge D’Affaires Brent Hardt; American Airlines country director, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, Wellesley Joseph; Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association president Colin Jordan; BTA chairman Ralph Taylor; and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Andrew Cox.
Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy arrived after some of the passengers had already deplaned, but he took a hands-on approach by personally leaving the reception line to greet and chat with many of the visitors just after they disembarked.
After the symbolic ribbon was cut to officially signal the opening of the new route, Joseph indicated that with the three weekly flights from Dallas/Fort Worth to Barbados and the flights from Miami, New York and Puerto Rico, AA’s flight schedule would provide customers with greater opportunities via three major hubs in the US.
Sealy’s joy was unmistakable as he outlined many of the challenges tourism had faced during the past two-and-a-half years and he pointed out that 2011 was shaping up to be very promising with the realization that the Dallas/Fort Worth flight as the first one was fully booked and the same had been achieved for the next eight weeks.
Hardt stated that the flight could open up opportunities for the US to become the biggest market for Barbados once again.
Such sentiments had been raised by Taylor who pointed to a favourable 12-13 per cent increase in tourist arrivals from the United States during the year.
Sealy said the strength of the bookings for the new flight, which were presently stronger than Miami or New York, boded well for the US$1.5 million line of credit that Government had to provide to launch the new route.
“The bookings indicate that we will not have to subsidize this route, and we are ending the year on a strong note with regards of airlifts out of the US,” Sealy said. “These are difficult times but in spite of the challenges we have fared well,” the minister added.
“AA have been good to us for 35 years and rather than cutting back in these times they have increased their flights,” Sealy concluded.