Air Jamaica plane

January 31was the airline’s last day in that North American city.

The airline returned to the busy airport on December 9 last year, almost three years after cutting the route.

At the time of the resumption of direct service between Kingston and Miami, Caribbean Airlines CEO (Ag) Mr. Robert Corbie had this to say, “The resumption of direct service to Miami by our Air Jamaica brand solidifies our commitment to offering our customers better connectivity to North America, providing more options to and from Florida from Jamaica.”

He continues, “As the only regional carrier to offer non-stop services from Jamaica to three of Florida’s major cities, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and now Miami, we are a fundamental resource in Caribbean aviation. We believe in the added value of our product and continue to provide a reliable, flexible and dependable operation. Our added value package entitles our passengers to frequent flyer miles, two free pieces of checked baggage up to 50 lbs, in-flight entertainment and complimentary meals.”

It is not clear what has forced the hands of the former national carrier so soon after its return. However, in early December its parent company, Caribbean Airlines, aggressively tried to woo passengers with introductory rates as low as US$79 one-way plus taxes.

The only US cities now served by the airline are Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, New York and Philadelphia.

Jamaica newly appointed Ambassador to Brazil Alison Stone Roofe

She is career diplomat Alison Stone Roofe, the current director of the Caribbean and Americans Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ambassador designate is also the former deputy director of the Foreign Trade Department and Private Sector Liaison for the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery.

Ms Roofe is a part-time lecturer of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, and brings with her 20 years working experience in the ministry. She serves as a member of the CARICOM Inter-Governmental Task Force on the review of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and a member of the Caricom-appointed Evaluation Committee overseeing the reconstruction of the Caricom Secretariat.

Word of the appointment was made yesterday by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, AJ Nicholson, and signals a deepening of relations within the hemisphere.

“The opening up of a mission in the capital Brasilia is part of the strategic vision of the ministry in a bid to encourage trade and investment opportunities and strengthen Jamaica’s advocacy in the global arena,” the ministry said yesterday.

CaribPress: How did the idea to start Travelwire Global, Inc, a worldwide online travel and tour company, come about?

Oliver Huie: Having worked in the travel industry, I felt the personal touch was missing.  A desire to bring back the personal touch to travel, while providing quality services to travelers, led me to launch this online travel business.

CPress: Tell our readers about the experiences that you bring to Travelwire Global.

OH: Travel savvy – A passion to travel, coupled with a wealth of knowledge about the Caribbean infrastructure and the back-end of travel Information Technology (IT).  The experiences that I bring to the company includes over fifteen (15) years experiences working as an IT Engineer, as well as a few years as a travel agent.

CPress: Travelers are looking for deals.  There are other online travel companies providing deals as well.  What types of deals do Travelwire Global offer that sets the company apart in the industry?

OH: We are focusing on the Caribbean market, we are from there.  This is advantageous because we know the demographics of that market better than our competitors. We are bringing back the customer support and service aspects to the travel industry.  Our staff at Travelwire ensures that your travel experience is smooth by providing comprehensive customer service from the time the trip is booked.

CPress: In today’s tight economy, travelers are looking to cut costs and save money.  Savvy travelers are looking for a luxury vacation on a low budget.  Tell us about how a family can benefit from the “Make Your Own Deal” program?

OH: Travelers can get a lot for their money with the Make your Own deal program.  Our business resources on the ground are able to provide great deals for hotel rates.  We are from the Caribbean and we know the suppliers.

CPress: In light of the cruise ship wreck in Italy, your thoughts on how this devastating accident could impact the travel industry?

OH: According to some of the reviews, they are expecting an impact to first time cruise travelers.  At the same time, we have to market the safety of cruise.

The advice to travelers is that when you are going on a cruise, the first thing you should do when you board the ship is to attend the safety drill within the first day of the cruise. It is important that every cruise passenger attends this safety drill;

CPress: What travel spots are on your bucket list for the 2012 travel season?

OH: Cancun – Spring Break; Negril; Jamaica – Spring Break; Jamaica, Virgin Island – Carnival – April; Jamaica – Reggae Sumfest – July; Barbados – Crop Over festival – July; Jamaica 50 – August; Trinidad 50 – August;

CPress: What is Travelwire Global ‘Fab Five’ travel destinations and why?

OH: ‘FAB FIVE’ Destinations are the following:

1. Jamaica — have the beach in the Caribbean, in Negril you have 12 miles of white sand beach. The food, culture, people and the best adventure experience.

2. Dominican Republic — This Island is a hidden treasure, is lost somewhere under the blanket of green felt that coats its densely forested hills. It has some of the best rates in Hotels and attractions.

3. St. Lucia — St. Lucia is quickly gaining steam as the best destination in the Caribbean – and rightfully so. The island has the perfect mix of what one desires in a Caribbean getaway; a vibrant port city surrounded by tall, sweeping, rainforest covered mountains.

4. Barbados — Barbados clinches the number two spot for being a country that has truly established its own identity since breaking away from the British rule in 1966.

5. Mexico – Mexico is the most visited destination and receives over 3 million visitors each year. Its modern hotels, gorgeous Caribbean coastline and proximity to US makes it a destination anyone can enjoy.

CPress: As Jamaica move towards 50 years of nationhood, what are the most significant milestones thus far for the black, green and gold?

OH: Jamaica becoming an independent nation, our national heroes and the influence of reggae music globally are significant milestones.

CPress: In terms of the Jamaican diaspora, what plans are in the pipeline for Jamaica 50?

OH: I am excited to say that there are many special events planned within the diaspora in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Jamaica.  The events kick off in January.

Visit the Consul General of Jamaica web site for more details at: www.congenjamaica-ny.org

CPress: With the age of smartphones, tablets, other portable devices and social networking, what role will this play in the travel industry?

OH: Technology is changing how travelers book their flights.  Social media has played a major role in internet booking.  Everything is geared to twitter, facebook LinkedIn or a website.

CPress: Elaborate on the future for Travelwire Global.

OH: We foresee Travelwire to be a leader in the travel industry, while positioning our self as one of the top leaders in the travel industry by offering good prices, good packages and good customer support.  And build our customer base on word of mouth referrals by family and friends.

Barbados economy stabilized in 2011

That plan is designed to achieve a balanced budget by 2016/2017.

The bank, in its economic performance review for 2011 and prospects for 2012, stated that the fiscal deficit was down more than two per cent of GDP from the previous 7.4 per cent for the latter nine months of last year, in line with the revised strategy targets.

The economy grew by an estimated at 0.5 per cent last year aided by increases in construction (4.4 per cent), tourism outputs (0.3 per cent), and transport and communications sectors (0.6 per cent).

The United States and United Kingdom markets rose, while the Barbados-based low-cost airline REDjet boosted arrivals from the CARICOM region led by a 35 per cent increase the Trinidad and Tobago market.

“Tourist numbers have increased, but length of stay and average spending have fallen, leading to an increase in tourism output that was marginal, at 0.3 percent,” the bank stated.

It noted that Barbados’ tourism remains competitive because the country is known as a high quality destination, adding, “In order to maintain a competitive edge in tourism, the industry must attain and maintain international standards at all times.”

The Central Bank called for further investment in refurbishment and upgrades of hotels and tourism facilities, including the cultural and historical legacy of the country.

Foreign exchange spending of BDS$5.5 billion (US$2.75 billion) was financed almost entirely from tourist inflows, earnings from the International Business and Financial Services sector, exports and capital inflows.

“As a result there was a minimal need to draw on the Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserves, which fell by only 1 percent between the end of 2010 and December 2011,” the bank explained.

“The Barbados currency remains well protected, with foreign reserve cover of 18 weeks of imports at December 2011, comfortably above the international norm of 12 weeks.”

Growth prospects for 2012 are tempered by the unsettled international climate, while the medium term growth prospects are encouraging, once the international economy settles down, the bank said further.

“The growth rate in 2012 may be one per cent or less, unless the international economic and financial climate improves. Construction of tourism facilities and Government’s housing initiatives are expected to be the main drivers,” it explained.

“In the medium term, growth rates of 2 to 3 percent are possible, provided the strategies mentioned earlier are successfully implemented,” the central bank said.

Islands Picture

Made world famous by the so-called “flower children” of the hippie generation, the approximately seven-kilometre stretch of powdery white sand and crystal clear waters, authorities say, accounts for just over 25 percent of the island’s tourism earnings.

But the industry that placed Negril on the map, and on which the town depends, has been destroying the fragile marine ecosystem it needs to survive.
Now, Jamaican authorities are turning their attention to Negril, where decades of unplanned development is destroying the local ecosystem and eroding the famous beach.

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), the agency responsible for the management and protection of the island’s 1,022 kilometres of coastline, has begun the replanting of sea grass beds and mangrove forests in Negril as well as Montego Bay and Portland Bight. The agency said these areas have faced severe negative impacts from the large-scale removal of coastal vegetation.

The replanting is one of several activities in an “integrated” multi-sector, multi-donor effort to halt the decline of the ecosystems that are crucial to the preservation of Negril’s prized beaches, project manager Mary Gooden said.

Partially funded by a 4.13 million-euro grant from the European Union, the project is expected to provide alternative livelihoods for those whose activities negatively impact the environment and to
enhance the resilience of Negril and other vulnerable coastal areas to the impacts of natural hazards.

Gooden, who works with the Planning Institute of Jamaica, which coordinates climate change mitigation actions on the island, noted that the restoration of Negril’s marine wetlands is expected to boost the ability of the ecosystem to protect of one of Jamaica’s most valuable coastal areas from impacts of severe weather. Healthy wetlands dissipate wave actions and minimise their impacts on the shoreline.

The world famous white sand beaches “have been experiencing severe and irreversible shoreline and retreat” for more than four decades, a 2010 report from the Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Methodology Development Project (RIVAMP) warned.

The problems have been exacerbated by inland activities that continue to impact the reefs: unsustainable fishing practices, and the removal of mangroves to increase the number of hotel rooms and to provide material for charcoal and fish pot production.

Jamaica’s State of the Environment (SOE) report 2010 stated that between 2007 and 2010, 2,560 hotel rooms were added, with Montego Bay and Negril accounting for most of the new development at 29 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively.

In 2010, tourism was estimated at 20 percent of Jamaica’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), just over 50 percent of the island’s foreign exchange earnings and a quarter of all jobs. Some say that Negril’s ecosystem may actually account for much as 40 percent of GDP.

In recent decades, Negril has recorded some of the highest rates of coastal erosion in the Caribbean. Studies by the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Smith Warner International for the Negril Coral Reef Protection Society indicate that Negril’s coastline eroded at an average rate of between .5 and one metre a year between 1968 and 2006.

Rebecca Hains tells WCVB-TV the Transportation Security Administration agent took her cupcake, telling her its frosting was “gel-like” enough to constitute a security risk. The TSA has restrictions on taking liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives.

Hains says she had passed through security at Boston’s Logan International Airport with two cupcakes packaged in jars. But she says she was stopped Wednesday on her return from Las Vegas with one of them.

TSA spokesman Nico Melendez says the agency is reviewing the situation. He says passengers are allowed to take cakes and cupcakes through checkpoints.

But for life coach Teri Johnson, whose personal journey through an imperfect life now inspires others to reach for the lives they’ve always wanted, the negative “nevers” of the disappointing hand life may have dealt you is where the healing starts. By confronting a never-ending and unproductive cycle of negativity, the elusive joy of the holiday season can be found not just now but every day of the year, says Johnson, author of the newly released book, Overcoming the Nevers (www.overcomingthenevers.com).

“You never thought you’d get divorced, but you did. You never dreamed you would find yourself in an abusive relationship, but you are. You never thought you would need to lose 200 pounds, but you do. And you never thought you’d be 45 years old without a job, losing your home and drowning in debt, but you are,” says Johnson.

“We start to believe lies about ourselves, such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m undeserving.” We escape our pain and these toxic feelings into unhealthy behaviors and addictions. There is freedom from the struggle; there is hope in discovering the truth; there is a way to fall in love with who we are to experience a joy-filled season, and more importantly a joy-filled life.”

Johnson’s tools for overcoming the “nevers” that drag many down during the holiday season are:

• Acceptance: Do you have the strength to make the changes necessary to turn a situation around through an attitude of acceptance? Or will you remain powerless, remain in the state of non-acceptance and let everything around you dictate how you feel? The journey starts with accepting that you can’t change others, but you do have power over your own life.

• Surrender: What we surrender ourselves to ultimately becomes our god, what we turn to or upon which we rely. The question then is: What are we surrendered to? Is it something firm, solid and long-lasting or something that hurts us in the end?

• Joyfulness: Hold tight to your unique gifts and talents to enrich your own life and impact the lives of those around you. Build on what you’re good at, what makes you special and what makes you feel good about yourself.

• Discovery: Confronting the truth about who we are deep inside helps us overcome our painful past and discover the basis for those “nevers.”

• Faith: Until we accept love for ourselves from God, from others and towards others, the healing will not begin. Embracing love is an ongoing process that starts with learning to like yourself and with a willingness to accept your imperfections.

Johnson advises that the process of confronting internal struggles and the “nevers” of life isn’t easy, but no treatment program, no diet and no New Year’s resolution can be successful without breaking down the essence of individual struggles and making the necessary adjustments to attain the life you deserve.

“If the life you are living is full of unacceptable and disappointing things and you don’t want to spend another year like this, the only thing holding you back right now is your own confusion, self-doubt and anger,” she says.

“You don’t have to keep doing what you’re doing or feeling what you’re feeling, but you do need to come to terms with yourself and surrender yourself to faith that there is a better way.”

Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Jose Perez-Riera says the Celebrity Silhouette ship that docked on the island for the first time Saturday can accommodate 2,850 passengers.

Perez-Riera said the U.S. Caribbean territory had seen a drop in cruise ship arrivals in the previous four years.

About 535,000 cruise ship passengers visited Puerto Rico from January to April of this year, a nearly 1 percent drop compared to the same period last year.

-AP

Island Travel & Tours Ltd., along with its partner, Sky King Inc. will offer weekly charter service beginning March 21.

This year, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport received approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to handle passenger charter air service to and from Cuba. The Cuban government recently approved Island Travel &Tours to offer the service from BWI Marshall.

A private sandwich shop has opened in a town previously served only by a grim state-run cafeteria. A woman sells trinkets from a small spot of shade. A weathered farmer in dusty jeans has rigged up an ancient ice cream machine and is selling cones for 8 cents a pop.

Out of sight of Cuba’s dollar-spending tourists, in areas where money from overseas relatives trickles in only sporadically, dusty towns like this one slowly are being revitalized by a series of private enterprise initiatives ushered in by President Raul Castro.

Visits to more than a dozen towns in the central provinces of Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus found private businesses popping up on every main street, places hard hit by the decline of Cuba’s sugar industry and the general economic malaise that has settled over the country after more than half a century of Socialist rule.

Even in one-street hamlets like Yaguaramas, small businesses are buzzing while many residents, and most canines and livestock, lounge sleepily in the broiling midday sun.

The government says about 338,000 Cubans across the island now have licenses to operate private businesses, including more than 4,500 in Cienfuegos and 14,000 in Sancti Spiritus. While the number has not changed significantly since April, it is still more than three times the government’s goal for the year. The businesses are the result of Castro’s plan to inject a measure of capitalism into Cuba’s flatlining Marxist economy.

The new businesses are exceedingly modest. The income generated is nowhere near enough to transform Cuba’s perennially weak economy. But on the level of individual lives, or the hopes of a small town, residents say the reforms have been a boon.

“It’s a way of having something that is all yours,” said Alain Suarez, who along with his family has opened a professional looking “guarapera,” or sugarcane juice stand, in Santa Isabel de Las Lajas, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the central city of Cienfuegos up a bumpy byway lined by tall fields of sugar cane.

The bright-faced 23-year-old points to a small pizza stand across the street from his establishment, and another that sells sandwiches. “All these businesses that have opened up recently have given the town new life.”

While he speaks to a reporter, a dozen schoolchildren come over to buy drinks, and a huge press that Suarez’s father concocted with an old American electric motor whirrs from a back room, sending sugarcane juice running down a metal trough and through a little window into a bucket near the front counter. The children pay 4 cents each for a cup, and go off happy.

As Suarez’s little juice stand shows, free enterprise starts off small in a place where most residents make salaries of about $20 a month and where all private businesses, from humble grocery stores to electronics shops to giant factories, were taken over by the socialist state in the late 1960s.

The town was the birthplace of legendary singer Benny More (pronounced mor-AY), who immortalized it in the 1955 song “Lajas, Mi Rincon Querido” (“Lajas, My Beloved Place”). But it has experienced trying days since then, including the dismantling of one of its giant sugar refineries in 2002 and the temporary closure of another since then. Cuba, once famed for its lucrative sugar trade, has seen production plummet, with 2010′s harvest the worst in 105 years.

Other than a brief festival each year to honor More, Lajas rarely gets any tourists, and residents say few receive remittances from relatives in South Florida or elsewhere. And while Castro’s plan to lay off half a million state workers has stalled, Cuba has shed 127,000 government jobs, further thinning the ranks of people with money to spend.

But Cuba’s countryside benefits from a quirk of the country’s economic system. Because big, inefficient state-controlled farms have trouble meeting the country’s demand for food, it may be the only place in the hemisphere where small-scale private farmers are near the top of the income pile.

“Here, everything is reversed,” Omar Everleny Perez, the lead economist at Havana University’s Center for Cuban Economic Studies, told The Associated Press in the first interview that any Cuban government or university economist has given a foreign news organization since the reforms were announced in October 2009.

Perez said Cuban farmers survived the lean years of the 1990s that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union better than city dwellers because they were able to sell the food they grew at relatively high prices to those desperate for nourishment.

“There are bank accounts worth 4 or 5 million Cuban pesos ($160,000 to $200,000) in the hands of farmers,” he said. Perez said 13 percent of Cubans hold 90 percent of the money in all of the island’s private bank accounts. “It is very concentrated, and much of it belongs to the farmers,” he said.

Perez has been unusually outspoken in his criticism of the reforms so far, arguing in opinion pieces published by the Roman Catholic Church and elsewhere that much more needs to be done to pull educated Cuban professionals into the private sector, allow bank credits to would-be entrepreneurs and establish a wholesale market to supply the new businesses.

But he said the changes are actually going better in the countryside.

He pointed to a program started in 2008 that has turned over more than 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of fallow government land to small-time farmers. While it has been beset by complaints of inefficiency, the program has put cash in the pockets of many rural families and some of it has gone into patronizing or funding new private businesses.

Salvador Parra Maya, a 46-year-old musician in Rodas, a town of about 12,000 in Cienfuegos province, said his family had invested $1,000 in a waist-high refrigerator, countertop and oven for a take-out sandwich shop set up in the front room of its small apartment. Up the block on the main street, a woman sold sticky peanut treats, and a barber had expanded his kiosk with a license to sell bootleg DVDs. It may not be Fifth Avenue, but for Rodas it’s the closest thing.

“The town has improved,” Maya said. “There’s more to buy, the quality of life is better. People are satisfied.”

In Cienfuegos itself, a relative metropolis of about 170,000 along the southern Majagua peninsula, the economic reforms have created a boom in private restaurants, or “paladares,” said Santiago Gonzalez, an engineer who opened a rock’n’ roll-themed eatery called “El Lobo” (The Wolf) in the center of the city.

The restaurant features posters of once-banned 1970s rock groups and a painting of KISS frontman Paul Stanley, with whom Gonzalez shares an eerie resemblance. Despite the somewhat shabby interior, he says his place is always full, with a mix of tourists and Cubans, and that he can clear up to 3,000 pesos ($140) a month after taxes, about seven times what he earned as an engineer.

Gonzalez said the number of paladares in the city had soared from just two before the reforms to between 40 and 50 today.

“From last year to this, you can just see the city changing,” Gonzalez said. “It is a city that is prospering.”

Perez said most of the reforms until now have been designed to alleviate the economic hardship of citizens, and they have been adopted first because they don’t cost the state anything. But he cautioned that the pace of change must pick up significantly to pull Cuba out of its economic malaise.

In addition to bank credits and a wholesale market, Perez has been advocating the creation of mid-sized cooperative companies that can do business directly with the state _ making boots for workers, or preparing lunches, or selling transportation services _ something that Cuban leaders have promised but not yet implemented.

On Thursday, Cuba announced the legalization of a real estate market, something the government had been promising for more than a year.

“We are only at the beginning of the process,” he said. “The law allowing private enterprise … is not sufficient to boost the economy. Selling sandwiches isn’t going to make the economy grow.”

But in Lajas and other towns, the reforms have been enough to change people’s attitudes, and keep many young people from going away.

“Fewer people are leaving town because they are finding something to do here,” said Arelis Contreras, the mother of two young adults who says she used to worry that her children would leave rather than make a go of it in a town that offered them little work.

“Now, they won’t have to go to Havana or Santiago in search of something better,” she smiled. “Because they will have it right here.”

General Secretary of Antigua & Barbuda Workers Union (ABWU) David Massiah said the matter was referred to the prime minister and the tourism minister Tuesday, hours after AA notified the union of its decision.

“It was more than a big disrespect to the union and the workers in particular because the workers were not aware, and all of a sudden you have people who have worked here 25 years and more with the company and to hear that they don’t have a job as of the 1st of November is more than traumatic in some ways,” he said.

The company, Massiah explained, has not yet indicated how many workers will be sent home.

Union representatives met with AA employees later in the day to notify them of the situation and decide on their next court of action.

Minister of Tourism John Maginley indicated that government has limited options.

“I don’t know what steps we can take at this time,” he stated.

“I understand that they have already outsourced a number of Caribbean destinations. Apparently, this is part of their cost-cutting exercise.”

The planned retrenchment comes as AA prepares to introduce on November 17, four weekly direct flights from John F Kennedy International Airport in New York to Antigua under a revenue guarantee arrangement with the government.

Minister Maginley said that deal has not been affected.

“Nothing will happen anytime in the near future,” he disclosed basing his argument on recent discussions with AA.

“These big corporations, when they file for bankruptcy, there’s a long procedure and we don’t expect it to affect the flights into Antigua,” the minister added.

AA has not made an official statement on the matter.

According to the 11p.m. AST advisory from the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Tropical Storm Maria is moving toward the west at 23 miles per hour.

The centre of Tropical Storm Maria is located near latitude 13.4 north longitude 46.2 west or 1070 miles east-southeast of the Leeward Islands. Based on its current speed Maria would pass over the Leeward Islands late Friday night.

According to the latest NHC advisory maximum sustained winds are near 50 MPH with higher gusts and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 85 miles.

The 11 p.m. AST National Hurricane Centre report indicated that little change in strength is expected during the next 48 hours.

Estimated minimal central pressure is 1002 MB.

An air force reconnaissance plane is scheduled to reach Maria late Thursday the NHC said.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad  _ Officials in Trinidad say roughly 25 percent of the Caribbean country’s police officers have joined in a one-day strike.

A police union called for a day of “rest and reflection” Monday as a way to protest the government’s offer of a 5 percent pay raise. The union says that isn’t enough.

Soldiers have been seen accompanying police in the capital.

Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs says most officers are working but “there has been some measure of absenteeism.” Gibbs says the biggest number of officers who participated in the strike are assigned to courts.

There is no information yet on whether the walkout has affected crime rates.

JTB honored at Travelage West’s 2011 Awards

Mark Williams, vice president of commercial operations for the Airports Authority of Jamaica, said the walkout left hundreds of disgruntled passengers waiting in airport lobbies.

“All flights in and out have been delayed by a couple of hours,” Williams said. “There have been multiple diversions.”

He said a couple of flights to the Cayman Islands were canceled.

Jamaica’s civil aviation authority called in managers to supervise flights after traffic controllers abandoned their posts Sunday. Spokeswoman Nicole Hutchinson said the agency would “ensure the safety of the industry and we will not operate in such a way to compromise safety.”

Martha Pantin, spokeswoman for American Airlines, the dominant Caribbean carrier, said the company was forced to cancel two flights due to the strike, which coincides with Jamaica’s Labor Day holiday.

At Norman Manley International Airport in the capital, Kingston, about 200 travelers waited for flights near the ticketing counters Monday afternoon.

Evert and Ettle Koster, of Modesto, California, were resigned to waiting for a replacement flight home after their morning departure to Miami was canceled. The couple spent two weeks in Jamaica, where they travel each year.

“Well, you just have to be patient and not get upset because it’s out of your control,” said Ettle Koster, resting her feet on one of their suitcases.

Dutch college students Rosanne Brandjes, 23, and Maaike de Bruijn, 20, were trying to make it back to the southern Caribbean island of Curacao, where they have spent much of the last four months doing internships. They said their afternoon Insel Air flight was diverted due to the strike, leading to an expected delay of more than eight hours.

“We’ve got some paper and a pen so we’ll just play some games and wait,” said Brandjes, who is from a suburb of Amsterdam. “Hopefully we’ll get back tonight, cause we don’t have any money.”

The controllers, who ignored a Supreme Court injunction issued Sunday to return to work, are demanding retroactive pay raises and inclusion in the government’s negotiations over public sector wages.

“The island’s air traffic controllers are restive, and as a result normality cannot be guaranteed at the island’s international airports and within the Jamaican airspace,” the Jamaica Air Traffic Controllers’ Association said in a statement issued Saturday.

Telephone calls to the group’s president and general secretary went unanswered Monday.