Air Jamaica Drops Heathrow Service, Sells Slots to Virgin

Air Jamaica will drop its Kingston-London Heathrow route, on which it reportedly was losing $20 to $25 million annually, and sold its LHR landing and takeoff slots to Virgin Atlantic Airways, according to media reports out of London and Jamaica.

Virgin beat out rival British Airways to replace Air Jamaica’s LHR-Kingston service and will operate two weekly flights on the route beginning this fall.

“This new partnership allows Air Jamaica to continue our UK presence through Virgin Atlantic’s much larger marketing and operational matrix,” Air Jamaica president and CEO Mike Conway told The Jamaica Observer. “We’ll be able take advantage of Virgin Atlantic’s global network, and together we will feed and flow passengers through our common gateway cities in North America and the Caribbean.”

Virgin currently operates two weekly London Gatwick-Montego Bay flights and will continue that service. It will place the Air Jamaica code on its flights and jointly sell seats on the routes with the Caribbean carrier.

BA operates thrice-weekly LHR-Kingston service but reportedly was seeking to add flights and code-share with Air Jamaica.