Jamaica tourist arrivals up to 2025 levels but..


Montego Bay Sangster International Airport processed just 0.9 percent fewer passengers in October this year, with 257,600 passing through Jamaica’s largest airport compared with 259,800 in 2025, the month Hurricane Melissa hit the western end of the country and severely disrupted the tourism sector.

It is unclear what impact the reduction in room count, arising from the closure of a number of hotels since November last year, is playing in the reduced visitor traffic.
While the numbers reflect stability, they are far less than the 319,200 commuters that passed through Montego Bay in October 2024. The 2026 outturn reflects a fall of 19.3 percent, compared with 2025, slightly worse than the decline in September of 17.6 percent. For the ten months to October this year, Sangster processed 23.9 percent less passengers than for 2025 with 3,124,500 versus 4,107,100 in 2025.
Kingston, Norman Manley Airport processed 3.8 percent more passengers this year October with 126,700 that passed through, up from 122,000 in October 2025.  Year to date movements slipped 1.3 percent 1,511,400 from 1,531,800 in 2025. Last year, October, Kingston Norman Manley Airport handled 13.0 percent fewer passengers compared to the previous year, with 121,500 in 2025 vs 139,600 in 2024.

The data was extracted from the website of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V., operator of both airports.

Cross over Kingston

The line pointing to the top right hand of the picture was created by the jet heading for Honduras and the one from bottom right to top left is heading to Miami. Kingston Harbour is in the direction of the right of the picture


Coming off a weekend of rest and church going an early morning cross appeared and prominently sat over the hills of Jamaica’s capital, Kingston on Monday remaining over the city for quite some time, was captured by ICInsider.com on camera as it was found to be quite intriguing.

was this a sign of significance or just a quirk of nature? What caused it? An Avianca Airbus 320 flying at 38,000 feet flew over Kingston to Miami from Bogota Columbia, minutes before an Amerijet International, Boeing 767 jet flying from San Juan, Porto Rico to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, passed over Kingston moving in a south west direction at a height of 39,000 feet. Both aircrafts left vapor trails, resulting in the cross over Kingston.

Vapor trails might look like smoke or steam, but they are clouds of tiny ice crystals which come from the aircraft’s engines.