Delta Returns

Cayman welcomes back Delta Airlines

By Christopher Tobutt

Premier Hon Wayne Panton, Deputy Premier Hon Chris Saunders, and Tourism Minister Hon Kenneth Bryan all came to give the passengers stepping off the big Delta Airlines plane a warm Cayman welcome, after the traditional two-water cannon salute, at Owen Roberts International Airport on Saturday 5 March. It’s only been a couple of weeks since United and American Airlines were welcomed back to Cayman, and happened on the same day as a huge tourism jobs fair was held at the Ritz Carlton. It all spelled out that Cayman’s tourism is not only back-and-running, but beginning a shift into a higher gear.

Marva Reid, Delta’s Operations Service Manager for Grand Cayman said, ‘Today is the inaugural flight back to Grand Cayman after two years so we’re very excited. From March till June we will be doing two flights a week, on Saturdays and Sundays. After June we will be doing daily flights, and of course when the winter season kicks in we will be offering many more flights pretty-much back to our regular schedule. Today the flight is coming in from Atlanta, Georgia, but we also offer services from Minneapolis and Detroit, plus there are occasional flights during the season from JFK. We are absolutely ecstatic to be back in Cayman today. It’s important for our economy to have our visitors come in and turn back to a place which they have enjoyed for many years,” she said.

“I’d just like to say thank you guys for coming out and welcome Delta back its been a long time coming we’re certainly glad to be back,” said Delta’s Country Manager, Kevin Bolen. “We’ve always played an important part of the local community, and its good to be back serving this community.”

Tourism Minister, Hon Kenneth Bryan said, “Again this is another step in getting back to normal. I just had a wonderful story with a lady who was so excited to be back. She said when she first came to the Cayman Islands her husband proposed to her on the beach, and four days later they got married. And she’s got a tattoo with a Sir Turtle on her leg, just to show her commitment to the Cayman Islands. People really love the product, as a people as a country in respect to our environment and what we stand for, so I am so excited that we are really able to offer that product again.

We are just excited as the PACT administration to get our environment loose enough that we can have a productive tourism product. And I think that we are going to have to go down the road of loosening it more and more as we get safer and more comfortable with living with covid. The numbers (of new infections) are going down, which gives us the comfort of being able to move forward.”