International Terminal Passengers climbed 7.8% at the Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport in November to 132,800 from 123,200 in the same month in 2023 and for the first 11 months of the year passenger traffic inched 0.5 percent higher to 1.6 million from 1.59 million in 2023, data from Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, operators of the two major international airports in Jamaica disclosed.
Developments for the major tourist entry point into the island continue to be negative, days away from the start of the winter tourist season. For the year to date, traffic declined 2.7 percent to 4.59 million incoming and outgoing passengers from 4.72 million last year, helped by a 7.4 percent drop in November to 373,900 from 403,600 last year. Importantly, the decline has slowed from October, with an 8.8 percent decline and September 11.9 percent.
Some developments were key to the decline, starting in April this year, with a 4.5 percent fall in traffic through Montego Bay. Mentioned was made of travel advisory out of the US market, but importantly, Easter a high level travel time, came in late March in 2024 compared with the start of the second week in April 2023. More importantly, the passage of Hurricane Beryl and continuous rains since and the holding of the elections in the USA would have kept many potential travellers from vacationing until after the high level rains and the November for elections workers. Importantly, Jamaica was not the only country with falling passenger traffic within the region.