Frontier Airlines Announces Newly Launched Direct Route From Cleveland to Jamaica Already Ending

Northeast Ohioans were pleased as all rum punch when Frontier, the budget airline set for a major expansion in Cleveland that included a local crewbase in March, announced that it would offer non-stop flights from Cleveland to Jamaica, among 12 other new direct routes.

But one month after takeoffs began from Cleveland Hopkins Airport to Montego Bay, Frontier this week announced that the grand opening would welcome a grand closing come June 29.

“We have been evaluating consumer demand for the Cleveland-Montego Bay service we launched in early March, particularly in light of the current U.S. Travel Advisory involving Jamaica,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the demand has not proven sufficient to continue the route for the full summer season and the last flight will operate on June 29. We will continue to evaluate market conditions going forward.”

Service was scheduled to cease in August but was booking flights three days a week.

With reports of flagging ridership and flights that were empty enough to offer each traveler an entire row to themselves, it's not entirely surprising that the airline pulled the ripcord so soon. After all, fledgling routes are often meant to gauge traveler appetite.

But while Cleveland suffers from a dearth of non-stop routes — ranking not even among the 50 top airports and offering fewer than 40 total — not every option is going to be a winner.

Cleveland last had non-stop service to Montego Bay in 2017.

Pre-Covid, Cleveland had 51 direct destinations. A decade ago, that number was 70. In 2023, there were 44,200 total nonstop flights at Hopkins. Ten years ago, that number was 83,000.

“The needs of Clevelanders do come first because that’s what’s going to fill up an airplane,” John Hogan, Hopkins' air service development manager, told News 5 Cleveland earlier this year. “What is the demand for certain destinations? And we put the two together and hopefully the airline will say, ‘Hey let’s take a chance on this and go for it.”

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