By the Caribbean Journal staff

Continuing its rapid Caribbean expansion, low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines has officially launched two new nonstop routes to the island of Jamaica.

Spirit’s new service includes nonstop routes from Orlando to both Kingston and Montego Bay.

The new Montego Bay flights will operate four times each week on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

A beach in Montego Bay.

The new Kingston route will run three times a week, with service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The new service continues what has been a big jump in airlift to Jamaica in the last year that has included almost 38,000 new annual seats to Jamaica from the United States, along with 12,000 new seats from Europe and an additional 42,400 seats from the Canadian market.

The routes strengthen both Jamaica’s traditional tourism hub of Montego Bay and its capital, Kingston, with the latter an area of increasing focus for the destination.

Half Moon in Jamaica.

Montego Bay has been seeing renewed interest in the travel industry of late, thanks to major transformation projects like that of the Half Moon Resort and the launch of the exciting new S Hotel in the heart of Montego Bay’s “hip strip.”

Kingston, on the other hand, has also been growing as one of the Caribbean’s leading urban destinations, one that will soon see the debut of a highly-anticipated new AC Marriott hotel, a joint venture between Marriott and Sandals.

Spirit has been on a massive growth push, particularly out of Orlando International Airport.

That expansion, first announced last year, has helped to position Orlando as yet another major Florida hub for Caribbean travel, with new service launched in the last six months to destinations including Puerto Rico, Cartagena, Colombia; Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras and Santo Domingo.

It all amounts to what has been the largest-ever expansion for Spirit, according to the company.