By Gregory Seay From Hartford Business

Imagine it: A jetliner lifts off from central Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport on a non-stop Jamaica flight, its seats filled with homegoers and tourists eager to soak up the balmy Caribbean island’s good vibrations.
The plane’s cargo hold, too, brims with Connecticut-sourced technology and merchandise also bound for the English-speaking island-nation of 2.6 million inhabitants and markets beyond. Return flights from Jamaica to Bradley also harbor the fruits of Caribbean trade and tourism.
Turns out, the quasi-public overseer of Connecticut’s largest airport, in concert with Jamaica’s U.S. ambassador — and with hearty encouragement from Hartford’s new mayor and Connecticut’s sizable West Indian diaspora — already are trying to make that vision a reality.
Early talks are underway, top officials confirm, between Connecticut and Jamaican authorities and with several North American air carriers about establishing direct, daily passenger/cargo flights between Bradley International Airport and Jamaica’s capitol, Kingston.
Meantime, trade-minded members of Hartford’s West Indian community also are lobbying the city to designate some of its North Meadows acreage as a Caribbean trade zone to promote the flow of goods between that region and Connecticut, say people familiar with the notion.
“There are benefits to Hartford and there are benefits to Jamaica,” said Ralph Thomas, Jamaica’s Washington D.C.-based ambassador to the U.S., who made a four-day goodwill visit to the Capital City in late November, where the notion of expanded air travel and trade between Connecticut and Jamaica was liberally aired.
Kevin Dillon, executive director and CEO of the Connecticut Airport Authority, and Thomas both stress air-service talks with carriers are very preliminary and there is no specific timetable for a decision.
They also declined to identify which carriers they are in discussions with, but said there is airliner interest in Jamaica service. Presently, the nearest non-stop Jamaica flights originate from Boston and New York City.
“Route development,” Dillon said, “is little bit like a courtship. We spend a lot of time talking to [air carriers] about us.”
At least six air carriers — Air Canada, AirTran, JetBlue, American, Delta and United — offer connecting flights with one or more stops to and from Bradley to Kingston, or Jamaica’s Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay. Since Jan. 5, 2012, JetBlue is the only carrier with non-stop Caribbean flights from Bradley, to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
American and AirTran’s parent, Southwest Airlines, say they constantly patrol for profitable fleet-passenger opportunities. JetBlue said in an emailed statement, “We have a good relationship with Bradley International Airport, and frequently have conversations about the possibilities of expanding service both in the short and long terms,” adding that it does not transport cargo. The rest did not respond to requests for comment.
Dillon and Thomas say there are myriad reasons why direct flights between Connecticut and Jamaica make sense, financially and logistically.
“I do believe we have a population here in New England, and certainly in Hartford, that are fond of sun-drenched destinations,” Dillon said. “It stands to reason we have something to talk with them about. A route to Jamaica would just be one of many we talk about.”
Discussions remain ongoing, for instance, with carriers about direct daily flights to and from Bradley to West Coast points, such as Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco, he said. Starting Sept. 28, regular, seven-days-a-week Aer Lingus flights to and from Ireland will resume at Bradley, after a seven-year hiatus in trans-Atlantic service.
“Jamaica is a major tourist destination,” Thomas said. “We already have 1.5 million American tourists traveling to Jamaica every year.”
On his recent four-day visit to Hartford in November, the Jamaican ambassador heard from frustrated Connecticut tourists and business travelers about the lack of direct air service to and from the island.
Thomas said he also is aware of a “very strong desire from the West Indian community” to expand trade between the U.S., Jamaica, Trinidad and their half-dozen other Caribbean neighbors.
Inbound products to Connecticut, he said, might include popular Jamaican foodstuffs, including prepared foods, spices, sauces and beverages. Outbound cargo could include Connecticut-made machinery and equipment.
“Jamaica is evolving as a country,” said Thomas, who grew up in May Pen, Clarendon, Jamaica, and graduated from New York’s Columbia University. “We’ve made a lot of progress with infrastructure. … Jamaica is not just a market to ship goods to. It can be used to ship goods to other [global] markets.”
Seeking opportunities
According to the homepage for the Hartford-based Caribbean Trade Council Inc., Jamaica’s main industries include the processing of sugar, food, beverages and tobacco. It also produces chemicals, metals and construction materials, and assembles electrical appliances and apparel.
Andrew Lawrence, who launched the trade council in 2004 and is president, said the widening of the Panama Canal, a doorway to larger goods-laden vessels between global hemispheres, makes fortified U.S.-West Indies trade inevitable.
Of all the ports in the West Indies, Jamaica’s naturally deep and well-positioned ports make it an ideal logistics staging ground for goods shipped between the eastern and western hemispheres, Lawrence said.
“Cargo between the United States and the Caribbean can move back and forth,” he said.
Presently, Jamaica is barely a blip on America’s trade radar. The U.S. exported goods worth $1.6 billion to Jamaica in the first 11 months of 2015, but only $280.8 million of Jamaican imports to America were tallied in that period, according to Census Bureau data. For all of 2014, America’s exports to Jamaica totaled $2.2 billion, and imported goods worth $285 million. In 2013, the tally was $2 billion and $414.5 million, respectively.
However, Connecticut’s exports to Jamaica, led by foods, totaled $3.4 million in 2014, the latest full-year Census tally available. That’s down from $3.1 million in 2013, and $5.4 million in 2012. In 2014, Jamaica’s exports to Connecticut were worth $339,000. In 2013, Connecticut’s Jamaican imports totaled $400,000, and were $3.9 million in 2012.
No Caribbean country is among the top 25 exporters to Connecticut, according to Census Bureau data through 2014. Canada, China and Mexico are this state’s three leading trade partners.
Business travelers, too, seek direct travel to Jamaica, Lawrence and Thomas said. Jamaica is home to a relatively large number of hospitals and health clinics, which could leverage Connecticut’s healthcare expertise and technology for its population. UConn’s School of Medicine was one of the stops during Thomas’ recent visit.
As for a potential Caribbean international trade zone in Hartford, ex-city councilman David McDonald said talks between promoters from the local West Indian community and the city also are “still very early,” awaiting a commitment from the city as to options for a 12-acre parcel off William Moody Overpass/Weston Street, adjacent to the former Connecticut Expo Center, now home to Restaurant Depot. Mayor Luke Bronin confirmed those talks.
At MetroHartford Alliance’s Rising Star breakfast last Tuesday, Bronin, in response to a question from Lawrence, said Hartford, as home to the third-largest West Indian community in the U.S. (after New York and Florida), should be “a center of import-export” of goods to and from Jamaica.
“There’s enormous opportunity,” Bronin said, “to take that cultural asset that we have and turn it into an economic asset for the city.”
For more on this story go to: http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20160118/PRINTEDITION/301149895/caribbean-connections-ct-jamaica-eye-non-stop-flights-import-export-pipeline