Cayman Airways to Return to New York Market this Summer

Cayman Airways will launch three weekly nonstop flights between New York (Kennedy) and Grand Cayman, effective June 24, subject to government approval.

The flights will operate from New York at 9 a.m. on Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays; from Grand Cayman, the flights will depart at 4:10 p.m. on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The service actually will mark the return of Cayman Airways to the New York area -the carrier operated nonstop flights between the two markets from 1989 through 1991. And then 10 years later, a Cayman Airways charter flight was operated to Grand Cayman for New York City firemen after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The carrier currently has nonstop 737 service to Grand Cayman from Boston, Chicago, Houston, Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Miami as well as flights from Jamaica and Cuba to Grand Cayman and turboprop service on Cayman Airways Express between Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.

Tourist arrivals in 2006 from the U.S. to the Cayman Islands totaled more than 217,000 visitors, up 82 percent over the previous year when the destination still was recovering from Hurricane Ivan’s damage in 2004.