EXACTLY TWO MONTHS FROM TODAY JetBlue will begin their new weekly non-stop service from Boston’s Logan Airport to Barbados, with a daily flight between December 19 and January 4. It’s a tremendous boost to our tourism industry and opens up not just Massachusetts but other highly affluent areas like Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and even Maine.
Most of these states have a vibrant tourism industry themselves, but a very short season, and I would imagine included in the target groups that our policy planners will be addressing will be the hundreds of thousands of people employed in the hospitality sector.
Since operating its first flight out of Logan in 2004, JetBlue has become the dominant carrier from this airport and by this summer now have up to 140 daily departures. Stick a pin into Logan and draw a radius of 60 miles or around an hour’s drive and you get to see the demographics and potential. That is before you carefully analyse the connecting city airport links that dovetail with the arrival and departure times of the Barbados flight.
Making it even more attractive is JetBlue’s stated intention to introduce the much heralded MINT service on this route from March next year. This premium product offers a completely flat seat, dedicated check-in, early boarding, faster security clearance, first bag to carousel, enhanced meal options and lots more. Clearly this will offer a special appeal to those seeking a higher level of travel experience.
The timings of the flight are a major play. It departs from Boston at 7:45 a.m. to reach Barbados at 1:39 p.m. Even after immigration, customs and accommodation transfers, arrival in daylight with time for a welcome drink and a dip in the warm ocean, which for many people with limited vacation days, is an enormous physiological bonus. The return flight leaves at 2:35 p.m. allowing a full morning before check out and still getting back to Boston at 7 p.m., allowing for connections or the drive home.
I also hope that also that our branded hotels will get creative. For instance, there is a Courtyard by Marriott and both a Hilton and Garden Inn very close to Logan. Perhaps they could work together with their sister properties here and for anyone staying at the Barbados Hilton or Courtyard to qualify for a special overnight accommodation rate and reduced parking charges at Boston airport.
Any way you assess JetBlue, it seems a win-win partnership for Barbados and another way and route, to hopefully entice some of the quoted 32 million passengers they carried last year, according to the website, to our shores. Next week’s column comes from Kentucky and a sample of all that state offers from a tourism perspective.
