Saint Lucia will welcome new flights from the UK next summer, with British Airways to introduce a twice weekly departure.

The flights will commence on July 4th and will run through August 29th, 2020.

The flight offers three classes of service and will add an average of 600 additional seats weekly to facilitate travel to the island.

It is welcome news for the island, with Virgin Atlantic announcing last month that it will end flights to the popular Caribbean island from June next year following a review of its network.

In responding to the news of the additional flights, prime minister of Saint Lucia, Allen Chastanet said: “We are elated with this latest development and the good fortune it spells for our continued efforts at growing visitor arrivals from the UK market.”

He added: “Based on the 2019 Virgin Atlantic schedule with three weekly flights, we had a total of 798 seats.

“When taking the ‘tag factor’ into consideration, we actually had approximately 399 seats per week.”

The additional flights will bring British Airway’s scheduled direct service from London to Saint Lucia up from seven to nine flights weekly.

Currently Saint Lucia is serviced by 14 direct BA flights that interconnect between London, Trinidad and Grenada.

Saint Lucia tourism minister, Dominic Fedee added: “This bold decision by British Airways, with whom Saint Lucia has a long-standing mutually beneficial relationship, certainly helps in filling the void left by Virgin Atlantic and their proposed pull-out come next year.

“This new arrangement means that with more than 600 additional seats weekly, we now benefit from a net gain during July and August of more than 200 seats.”

Fedee argued, together with the additional flights, several other marketing initiatives are being explored as a means of imbuing added life into the British market.