In a significant boost to Barbados’ continued tourism renaissance, United Airlines has announced plans to launch year-round service to the island from two major cities in the United States. 

United will now be operating year-round, nonstop flights from both Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey and Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC to Barbados’ Grantley Adams International Airport. 

The Newark-Barbados flights will operate on Saturdays, while Dulles-Barbados flights will run on Sundays, a boon for the island’s push to attract more travelers from the United States. 

United had been operating what was only seasonal airlift from the two cities to Barbados. 

“Initially United Airline’s service to Barbados was introduced in 2021 to support winter travel for passengers on board the Royal Caribbean- Rhapsody of the Seas vessel,” said Eusi Skeete, the US Director, Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.  “However, since then, the appeal has grown significantly, with Barbados continuing to see a distinct rise in visitors from the New Jersey, DC, Maryland and Virginia areas.”

Barbados tourism officials said the move demonstrated the “huge demand” for travel to Barbados from key US cities. 

“We are always thankful that we have such responsive travel partners like United Airlines, who we can work alongside to provide more travel options for our customers to meet the ever-increasing demand,” Skeete said. “We are all about building sustainable growth strategies for destination Barbados, to ensure that these partnerships, and by extension airlift, are long-standing.”

Barbados is seeing renewed visitation, both from the US and traditional strongholds like the United Kingdom and Canada, officials said at the recent Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association Marketplace conference held on the island. 

The expanded service also comes in time for Barbados’ popular Food and Rum Festival, which is back again this year from Oct. 19-22, a celebration of the island’s dynamic culinary culture and legendary rum industry.