Jamaican carrier reporting recovery

Kingston._ Despite the woes in the travel business, Air Jamaica is doing just fine and business is better than originally anticipated, its marketing executive Allen Chastanet said.

Chastanet believes the carrier will exceed budget for both January and February this year, while advance bookings for March, April, May and June look extremely promising. "The critical question is when do we stop the level of discounting that we are having to do in order to resuscitate this business."

The executive, who is the airline´s senior vice president of marketing and sales, noted that several routes were recovering nicely due to a release of "pent up demand" and people were resuming their travel plans despite the recent warm weather in the United States.

In particular, loads to the Dutch island of Curaçao from Montego Bay have been steady while business to Barbados is on the increase. Air Jamaica serves Barbados with non-stop flights from New York and via the Montego Bay hub in Jamaica.

Stateside, Boston is registering strong load factors while the airline is optimistic that travel will pick up on the challenging Houston route.