Article Image Alt Text

WELCOME! Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) Alvin Jemmott (third from right), and Chief Executive Officer of the BTMI William ‘Billy’ Griffith (right), welcoming passengers who came in on the inaugural Virgin Atlantic flight VS13.

New flight arrives!

BARBADOS’ Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Richard Sealy, along with other tourism officials and stakeholders, have welcomed a new flight out of the United Kingdom (UK).

The inaugural Virgin Atlantic flight VS131 from London Heathrow arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport at 3:30 p.m. yesterday, with 247 passengers. The Airbus 330 has the capacity to carry 264 passengers and will be coming to Barbados twice weekly, during the winter season.

In delivering remarks during a brief welcoming ceremony, Andre Bello, Commercial Manager-Caribbean, Virgin Atlantic, said passengers now have a choice of flying to and from three airports in the United Kingdom, including Heathrow, London Gatwick and Manchester.

“This is very exciting for me because as we develop as an airline, our only reason for being in this is to serve our customers and understand that they each have unique needs…So I really look forward to a very strong and positive winter season,” Bello said.

Minister Sealy indicated that for some time he has been leading the effort in trying to get additional airlift out of Heathrow, and thanked Virgin Atlantic for responding to the call.

Sealy reminded that the United Kingdom is Barbados’ most important and largest source market. He said though there are challenges with the UK market, Government is encouraged to see incremental growth there.

The Minister said Barbados’ marketing team in the UK is constantly seeking opportunities to get new flights coming to Barbados out of that source market.

“What we are doing is looking at other areas where we can get new growth. We are appealing to other areas of the market. We are coming out of Gatwick, we are coming out of Manchester, we are coming out of Heathrow, but we are not going to rest there.

“We had some discussions some time ago with the Birmingham City Council. There is a big airport in Birmingham as well…, Sealy said. (AH)

Barbados Advocate

Mailing Address:
Advocate Publishers (2000) Inc
Fontabelle, St. Michael, Barbados

Phone: (246) 467-2000
Fax: (246) 434-2020 / (246) 434-1000