Following the success of the first direct flight from Lagos, Nigeria, to Montego Bay, Jamaica, on December 21, 2020, the company behind that flight has scheduled another flight from Africa to the Caribbean island nation for March 30, 2021.

According to Elizabeth Agboola, the CEO and founder of Nigerians Travel Too, a travel firm, the March 30th Air Peace flight will originate in Lagos, then make a stop in Ghana to take on more passengers. The flight’s passengers are expected to stay in Jamaica for 11 days and 10 nights. The plane will then depart Jamaica on March 31, 2021, for a round trip to Africa, stopping in Ghana and Nigeria before returning to Jamaica on April 8, 2021. It will depart Jamaica for Ghana and Nigeria to the last time on April 9, 2021. This expanded flight schedule will provide Jamaicans with the chance to make direct round tips to Africa.

Agboola said that many people had asked for an outbound flight from Jamaica to Africa, as the only available flight was a one-way trip. Passengers who bought one-way tickets to Nigeria on the flight that left Jamaica on December 28, 2020, had to chart their own route to Jamaica for their return. Her company believes that the trip from Jamaica to Africa will have considerable support from Jamaicans and others in the Caribbean. The one-way flight to Africa had included Grenadians, and people from St. Kitts and Nevis and the Dominican Republic had expressed an interest in the trip. Agboola said there was “quite a buzz” from the Caribbean region in general, so she expects that once people know the flight is available, they will take advantage of it.

While the flight will land in Nigeria, other African destinations can be reached easily through connecting flights from Lagos to other cities on the continent.

The inaugural Air Peace flight on December 21, 2020, was initiated to commemorate 50 years of diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Jamaica. Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama and other representatives of government and the private sector were on the historic first flight. The Nigerian contingent was met at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay upon its arrival by Robert Montague, Jamaica’s Minister of Transport, and Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. At the time, Johnson Smith expressed her hope that the Air Peace charter flight would e the beginning of a new era of cooperation between Jamaica and Nigeria and that Africa and the Caribbean region would be able to expand opportunities in trade, tourism, and investment due to the opening of the direct air route.

Photo Source: Air Peace