Southwest Airlines plans big Caribbean expansion including Jamaica

America’s Southwest Airlines is launching a major new Caribbean expansion led by four Saturday-only routes from Nashville International Airport to Jamaica, Aruba and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The airline is also adding Saturday service between Columbus, Ohio and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, giving another Midwestern market a nonstop connection to the Caribbean’s largest resort destination. Most of the new Nashville routes are scheduled to begin March 13, including the flights to Montego Bay, Aruba, and St. Thomas.

All five routes are built around the Saturday-to-Saturday vacation calendar, a format that works particularly well for resorts, villas and all-inclusive stays across the region. The expansion gives Southwest a much larger Caribbean presence from Nashville while opening a new nonstop vacation route from Columbus.

Southwest’s Nashville-Montego Bay service puts Jamaica’s busiest tourism hub of Montego Bay within a nonstop flight of Tennessee. For these travellers, Montego Bay is the beginning of several possible Jamaican vacations. 

Visitors can stay along the city’s resort corridor, head west toward Negril, travel east to the villas and historic resorts around Ocho Rios or turn into the hills for the cooler landscape of Jamaica’s interior. Close to the airport, Half Moon has reopened its full resort experience with the Eclipse section, Founders Cove, villas, equestrian centre and the celebrated Sugar Mill restaurant. 

Round Hill Hotel and Villas, set west of Montego Bay, remains one of the island’s defining luxury hotels, with oceanfront rooms, private villas and Ralph Lauren-designed interiors. The route will be especially helpful during late winter and early spring. 

Southwest is building its next Caribbean gateway far from South Florida and Nashville is rapidly becoming one of the most important pieces of the airline’s regional map.