NATIONAL CARRIER Air Jamaica will, as of Monday, April 5, 2004, begin flying daily to Toronto, Canada.
The route will be served by flight JMO79 which will depart Kingston's Norman Manley International at 1:30 p.m. each day, making a brief stop in Montego Bay en-route to Toronto. It is scheduled to arrive at the Lester B. Pearson International Airport at 8:00 p.m. On the return, JMO78 will depart Toronto at 8:45 a.m. daily to arrive in Kingston at 11:55 a.m. with continuing service to Montego Bay. The airline's state of the art A320 aircraft with 12 top class and 138 economy seats will operate the flights.
The announcement was made Wednesday night by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson at the national tribute to Jamaica's Cultural Ambassador the Hon. Louise Bennett-Coverley (Miss Lou) at Emancipation Park in Kingston.
At the ceremony Miss Lou was presented with a lifetime pass for Top Class travel between Canada and Jamaica when the airline begins its daily service to that country next year.
Chairman of Air Jamaica Gordon "Butch" Stewart said Miss Lou was an inspiration to the Jamaican people and has given the country a priceless legacy. He expressed hope that the gesture will allow her to come home more often to share her gift especially with the young people.
Air Jamaica first began service to Toronto, Canada in March 1972 under Government ownership. However, due to extremely high fuel prices and inadequate equipment the airline discontinued the service in March 1990 and instituted a code share agreement with Air Canada. This continued under privatisation.
Christopher Zacca, Air Jamaica's CEO said the decision to return to Canada after a 13-year hiatus is part of the airline's mandate to fly where there are large Jamaican communities. He says for a long time Jamaicans living in Canada have been pressing for Air Jamaica to resume scheduled flights to that gateway. "With Air Jamaica's new fleet of state of the art airbus aircraft, we now have the capacity and capability to return to that route and service it in true lovebird style," Mr. Zacca said.
