President of the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ), Audley Deidrick, says Jamaica’s airport traffic will reach five million passengers by the end of this year, given the rapid recovery phase of the island’s travel and tourism industry. from COVID. -19 pandemics.
Speaking recently at a forum organized by MBJ Airports Limited to provide an update on the airport’s initiatives and other projects aimed at recovery, Deidrick said that when the pandemic hit, aviation traffic dropped to almost zero in June 2020.
On July 15 of that year, the government reopened the national borders to aviation traffic in phases.
Deidrick said that despite the resumption of inbound passenger traffic, the best forecast for aviation recovery was set at five to six years.
However, he said Jamaica’s recovery has far exceeded expectations, with 2021 seeing around 3.4 million passengers arrive.
“This current year, 2022, has shown the sharpest climb in the recovery curve, and therefore I characterize this year as the fast phase of the recovery process,” he said.
“From a slow start in the first quarter of 2020, our aviation traffic driven as usual by tourism traffic, which represents over 80 percent, has picked up rapidly such that for the months of May and June (this year), traffic for MBJ (Montego Bay) is equal to that of the corresponding months of 2019,” Diedrick described.
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Based on the sharp increase in passenger arrivals, he remains cautiously optimistic that Jamaica’s aviation traffic will fully recover three years earlier than expected.
“Based on this aggressive 2022 growth rate, the current forecast is for Jamaica’s aviation traffic to reach five million passengers or 77 percent of the 2019 level by December 2022,” Diedrick said.
“Furthermore, given the forecast for 2022, Jamaica’s aviation traffic is now expected to reach the 2019 level of 6.5 million passengers by December 2023. This is instead of the projected 2025-2026 timeframe – of all three years ago,” said the AAJ president.
