Here is the good news: Travelers to the Caribbean and Mexico this winter and in 2012 have more flight options, access, lift and gateways than in years past, signaling a comeback in travel from the past two years.
The bad news: Fares are higher, and in some cases, schedules and frequencies have been cut, so planes will be more crowded.
“Travelers have to be able to get to the islands in affordable fashion,” said Ken Blatt, principal and COO Caribbean Property Group, a real estate development company in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.
“The word is lift, lift, lift,” Blatt said during the recent Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference at Atlantis in the Bahamas.
What follows is a rundown of what’s in store.
Mexico
• Virgin America launched service last month from San Francisco to Puerto Vallarta with five weekly nonstops. The carrier also serves Cancun and Los Cabos.
• Aeromexico offers seasonal nonstop flights between Chicago and Zacatecas three times a week; seasonal service from Denver to Mexico City with a daily flight; and three flights a week year-round between Brownsville, Texas, and Monterrey.
In the fall the carrier launched twice-weekly, year-round service from Las Vegas to Guadalajara and doubled its frequency to four flights a week between Las Vegas and Monterrey.
• Southwest Airlines and its subsidiary AirTran will operate flights to Mexico beginning May 24.
AirTran’s new flights will include a daily roundtrip between John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif., and Cabo San Lucas and a daily roundtrip from Orange County to Mexico City.
AirTran also will launch four weekly roundtrip flights from San Antonio to Cancun on June 3 and a daily roundtrip between San Antonio and Mexico City on May 24.
• Interjet debuted in the U.S. on Dec. 1 with the launch of daily nonstop service between San Antonio and Mexico City. The carrier offers two roundtrip departures on weekdays and one on weekends, filling the slot vacated in 2010 by bankrupt Mexicana. It is up against Aeromexico, which also serves the route.
• VivaAerobus, another Mexico-based low-cost carrier, recently launched service between San Antonio and Monterrey.
Caribbean
• JetBlue will offer flights from Tampa and Jacksonville, Fla., to San Juan and will launch nonstop daily service between Hartford, Conn., and San Juan on Jan. 5.
The carrier increased service on its flights from Boston to San Juan, resumed seasonal service from Boston to St. Thomas on Dec. 15 with five weekly flights and launched twice-weekly flights from New York Kennedy to La Romana, Dominican Republic.
The carrier offers a Saturday flight from Boston to Aruba in addition to its two weekly flights and began service out of San Juan to St. Thomas and St. Croix on Dec. 15.
JetBlue added daily service from San Juan to St. Maarten in November and increased its frequency from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau to three daily flights.
Twice-weekly nonstop flights from Kennedy to Samana, Dominican Republic, began in November. The carrier will add two more flights from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan next May, bringing its daily total to six.
Twice-daily nonstop service from Fort Lauderdale to Kingston, Jamaica, will launch April 30. Already there are plans for a third daily flight in 2013, a move that would equal the number of daily flights offered by Air Jamaica.
JetBlue also recently added a daily nonstop flight between New York’s Westchester County Airport and Nassau, complementing its daily departures from Kennedy.
The carrier adds a daily flight from Kennedy to Montego Bay from Feb. 16 to April 30 and will run two weekly flights from Boston to MoBay from Jan. 4 to Feb. 27.
• AirTran now has seasonal service from Baltimore/Washington and Atlanta to Bermuda, weekend flights from Baltimore to Aruba through March 14, plus daily service to Aruba from Atlanta and weekend flights from Orlando.
The carrier will begin twice-daily service between Fort Lauderdale and San Juan on May 24, competing with JetBlue and Spirit on the route.
• Delta has weekly nonstop service on Saturday from LaGuardia to Aruba, complementing its Saturday nonstop service from Kennedy and its flights via Atlanta to Aruba from Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark and Westchester County Airport.
In March, Delta will add additional flights from Kennedy to Santo Domingo and Santiago, Dominican Republic, as well as to San Juan from Kennedy, where it is building an expanded concourse as part of a $1.2 billion project to enhance Terminal 4.
• American launched nonstop service from Dallas-Fort Worth to Barbados and began nonstop flights four times a week from Kennedy to Antigua in November. The carrier offers seasonal service to Montego Bay from Chicago with six weekly nonstops through April 3.
• InselAir, Curacao’s national carrier, now offers twice-weekly nonstop flights between Charlotte, N.C., and Curacao.
• St. Vincent Grenadines Air offers daily scheduled service between Montserrat and Antigua.
• American Eagle launched a second daily service between San Juan and St. Lucia’s George F. L. Charles Airport.
The carrier resumed nonstop weekend service between San Juan and Barbados and between San Juan and La Romana in November. The carrier also offers a daily flight from Miami to La Romana.
• Air Jamaica returned to Miami last month after a three-year hiatus. Its weekly Miami-to-Kingston flight goes to four a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) on Jan. 9 through February, after which the flights will be daily.
• Low-fare carrier RedJet, based in Barbados, launched service from Barbados to St. Lucia Dec. 16 and offers flights to Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana and Antigua.
• Vision Airlines offers nonstop service from Richmond, Va.; Louisville, Ky.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Baltimore; and Fort Lauderdale to Grand Bahama Island.
• Caribbean Airlines has resumed nonstop, twice-weekly flights from Orlando to Kingston.
• Gulfstream International now offers a daily roundtrip from West Palm Beach to Freeport, daily service from Orlando to Marsh Harbour, Bahamas, and six daily flights between Fort Lauderdale and Freeport.
• US Airways offers one flight a week from Boston to Montego Bay till April 14.
• United Continental has resumed weekend service from Newark to Montego Bay through Feb. 19. The schedule increases to four a week throughout March.
• Frontier recently received U.S. approval to operate year-round service from Chicago to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, beginning June 1, supplemented with seasonal service from up to eight other gateways, including Denver, St. Louis and Baltimore/Washington.
Follow Gay Nagle Myers on Twitter @gnmtravelweekly.
This article has been updated to remove a reference of Southwest service to San Juan.