(CNS): Cayman Airways will be relaunching a twice weekly year-round service from Grand Cayman to Panama City in June, the airline has announced. Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said the resumption of service is aimed at attracting new tourists to Cayman and transiting passengers and cargo. He said there was significant justification for relaunching the service based on passengers alone from this emerging market but also a case for the goods it could bring in from the Colon Free Trade Zone to make it viable.

The airline cancelled the seasonal route back in 2015, but at a press conference held on Monday, Cayman Airways President and CEO Fabian Whorms said he was confident that the route would be a success and he was not expecting it to run at a loss. He said the route had covered its costs the last time it ran, but had been dropped to pave the way for the Dallas flight at the time when CAL had a more limited fleet, and that strategic route had taken priority for the government.

But now, the new fleet of 737 Max 8 aircraft would manage the Monday and Thursday flights. The airline boss said this new route would bring in new passengers from across Central and Latin America, including medical tourists.

The flights to Tocumen International Airport begin mid-morning on Monday, 26 June, and tickets are expected to be less than $400. The flight takes around one hour and 50 minutes, with the return leg arriving back in Cayman before 5pm. Whorms said the flight times were designed to take advantage of connecting flights all over South America.

“This route will provide the perfect mix of options for leisure and business travel for our customers in Cayman as well as in Latin America,” he said. “With a flying time of only about one hour and fifty minutes with our new B737-8 jet fleet, the flight schedule has been designed to provide convenient same-day dual-direction connectivity between Grand Cayman and dozens of cities in Central and Latin America. The schedule also connects with some of our existing international routes, including Havana, Kingston, and Miami.”

The route is expected to do much better this time around, and the minister said that it would be monitored to ensure it lives up to expectations. It is understood that while there will be some minor changes made to the rest of the CAL flight schedule in the coming weeks, this new route is not expected to make an impact on other flights.

The Panama route was first launched in 2012, but within a few months, the year-round route was cut down to a seasonal flight, which was axed completely by 2015.

See the press conference in full on CIGTV below: