Canadian travel giant Sunwing has made its return to the island of Grand Bahama in The Bahamas. 

The carrier is now operating two nonstop routes from Canada to Freeport, with weekly flights from both Toronto and Montreal. 

Each flight will operate on Saturdays, with service running for the high season through April. 

It’s the first service from Sunwing to Grand Bahama since the impact of Hurricane Dorian last summer. 

“This is an exciting development and hopefully will herald the return of our tourism sector,” said Bahamas Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest. “It’s been a challenge, since the storm, getting available seats into the island. This is a significant boost for us. Hopefully, it will be the start of a successful summer promotional period and encourage the rebirth of investment in the tourism sector and the restarting of the tourism economy in all of these various properties.”

Thompson said Sunwing’s return was a major step in the island’s recovery.

Grand Bahama’s tourism sector has already made significant strides, with the return of many hotels on the island and cruise calls as well.

“Bringing back international flights is vital for Grand Bahama to recover,” Thompson said. “We have now seen that international flights are back, international flights will continue to move. So we are anticipating very shortly for American Airlines and some of the other airlines to also be coming back.”

— CJ