Big Up! Jamaica to See 22% Growth in Seat Capacity This Winter

It doesn’t matter how many well-appointed hotel rooms you have or how beautiful your beaches are. If you’re a Caribbean destination, it all starts with convincing enough airlines to fly to you.

So it was a smiling Jamaica Tourism Board Director of Tourism Donovan White and Regional Director Canada Angella Bennett who told assembled media, travel trade and Jamaica friends that seat capacity from Canada for winter 2025-2026 is up 22% –365,000 seats compared to 292,000 a year ago. 

“The big picture, this will be the headline that we will put on a billboard somewhere in the city very soon, is that out of Toronto to Jamaica there’s 10 flights per week,” White announced. “There’s absolutely no reason not to sell Jamaica and fill those planes to Jamaica.”

Canada is consistently one of the top three source markets for Jamaica, and Bennett says the relationship between our nations is far beyond business – it’s a genuine friendship. 

“Canadians go to Jamaica and they connect with people. Then they come back year after year.”

Among the lift highlights for Jamaica this winter is a new year-round Flair route linking Toronto and Montego Bay beginning December 14. The route will go daily during the peak holiday period.

Air Canada is opening up routes from Ottawa and Halifax to MBJ. And WestJet will deliver Quebec City area sunseekers to Montego Bay beginning on December 6.

“That’s a new gateway for us,” White said. “It took Angella and I the best part of 2.5 years to get it started. We are working to ensure we make it happen successfully.

Jamaica will need those new seats and more during the next few years, as its accommodation stock continues to expand. With about 35,000 rooms currently on offer, Jamaica will add another 5,500 in the next three years, and will be pushing the 50K mark in seven years or so.

White and Bennett are confident for winter after witnessing continuing strong demand all year. August Canadian visitors to Jamaica topped 30,000, up 8% from the year before.

Upcoming accommodation highlights include:

• UNICO will open its first hotel in the English-speaking Caribbean in Montego Bay in March 2026, with 435 rooms. 
• Adjacent to that, AIC Hotel Group is set to break ground soon on a Hard Rock Hotel, with more than 1,000 rooms.
• Ground has been broken on a Moon Palace Hotel development, which will include the tallest building in the Caribbean at 34 storeys. 
• A massive renovation of the family side of the Bahia Principe resort is planned, along with expansion. 
• The former Jewel Paradise Cove in Runaway Bay is undergoing a complete redevelopment into the new Royalton CHIC Jamaica Paradise Cove, with it debut expected late next year.

The Jamaica Tourist Board Canada also introduced the team from Weber Shandwick, its new PR agency.