Norwegian Air Adds Martinique Flight from New York

Image: PHOTO: Martinique visitor arrivals grew 6.6 percent in 2016. (photo by Brian Major)

by Brian Major
Last updated: 12:50 AM ET, Wed May 31, 2017

Norwegian Air will add a fourth nonstop flight between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Martinique's Aimé Césaire International Airport beginning October 29, company officials said Tuesday.

The new service continues a recent trend of increased service to Caribbean destinations.

Norwegian Air originally launched nonstop flights from the northeastern U.S. to Martinique in 2015-ithe first direct flights to the destination from the Northeast in more than 20 years-iaccording to Martinique Tourism Authority officials.

Departing Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, the flights start at $79 one-way. They provide travelers with access to "Martinique in four hours and a half," said Muriel Wiltord Director Americas of the Martinique Tourism Authority, serving "budget travelers, Francophiles, nature & beach lovers, culture aficionados and deal seekers."

Martinique experienced strong tourism growth in 2016, hosting 519,304 land-based visitors, representing a 6.6 percent year-over-year increase. The country's cruise-ship arrivals also grew sharply during 2016, with the 276,056 arrivals representing a 14.3 percent increase over 2015.

"We are very pleased that more and more Americans continue to discover such a hidden gem in the Caribbean that offers quite a vastly different experience to most other Caribbean islands," said Anders Lindström, Norwegian's US director of communications.

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The new flights continue an expansion of scheduled air service to Caribbean destinations.

Since the beginning of 2016, major carriers including Air Canada, American Airlines, Jet Blue and United Airlines have announced new flights to destinations such as Barbados, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the US Virgin Islands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad & Tobago.

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