Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 07, 2018 (SKNIS): Sun Country Airlines out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, will begin regular scheduled non-stop flights into the Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw (RLB) International Airport in St. Kitts, says Minister of Tourism, Honourable Lindsay Grant, at a sitting of the National Assembly on September 06.
This will be the first time there will be a non-stop service out of the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. Minister Grant explained that flights more or less come from the Eastern seaboard. This new flight will give persons in the Midwestern region the opportunity to connect non-stop into St. Kitts and Nevis.
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The service will begin on December 22, 2018, and will run until April 20, 2019. It will be a once per week flight on Saturdays.
Minister Grant explained that the main reason that the Midwestern flight is being engaged is because of the collaborative efforts between the St. Kitts Tourism Authority and the Nevis Tourism Authority.
“Of course there was a clamour I believe from the hoteliers in Nevis that this would be a significant area for them,” he said. “And so when we engaged the Nevis Tourism Authority, we felt that this would be a good match for us.
There has always been a drive to increase airlift to the Federation, said the minister, adding that airlift can be economically beneficial to flyers.
“In fact, Mr. Speaker, I was looking at the fares just yesterday. We will be looking at coming out of the Midwest the fares are looking like somewhere in the region of US $600 round trip,” he said. “That to my mind is a good rate because I believe when we look at the rates now to Miami we’re somewhere in the region of $1000 and we have a large segment of the population saying that those flights are pretty steep.”
Minister Grant said that it is hoped with the advent of more airlifts and competition there will be a decrease in rates.
Additionally, he stated that there is approximately six million persons of medium to high net worth in the Midwestern region of the US and it is expected that some of those persons in that region will be captured by both the Nevis and St. Kitts market.
He also said that the Federation is pleased to welcome Sun Country Airlines and that it will augur well for both St. Kitts and Nevis.
“We really hope we will have a symbiotic relationship with this airline and persons would use it and more importantly that it will pay us dividends,” said Tourism Minister Grant.
According to its official website “Sun Country Airlines is a privately-held company based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. The award-winning airline is a leader in leisure travel flying to more than 50 popular destinations across the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica and the Caribbean, having earned a reputation for offering world-class service at an affordable price.”
