With the ad­di­tion of its sec­ond route be­tween T&T and the Unit­ed States, Jet­Blue Air­ways last week launched four ad­di­tion­al non­stop Caribbean routes.One of the new routes con­nects Newark Lib­er­ty In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port with the Do­mini­can city of San­ti­a­go. The oth­er routes link the Fort Laud­erdale-Hol­ly­wood In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port with Mon­tego Bay, Ja­maica; Port-of-Spain, Trinidad; and Pun­ta Cana, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

The air­line said in a re­lease that a lack of in­tra-re­gion­al flights in the Caribbean im­pedes the move­ment of pas­sen­gers and car­go among the lo­cal economies, most of which suf­fer eco­nom­ic dif­fi­cul­ties.In re­cent months, Jet­Blue has an­nounced a sub­stan­tial in­crease in its in­ter- and in­tra-re­gion­al routes ser­vic­ing the Caribbean, mak­ing Puer­to Ri­co its re­gion­al hub and cov­er­ing the gap left when Amer­i­can Ea­gle ex­it­ed that mar­ket a year ago.

"We now of­fer cus­tomers 69 non­stop routes from the US to the Caribbean and more than 200 dai­ly flights to, from and with­in the Caribbean, which is more than any oth­er air­line," Jet­Blue Pres­i­dent Robin Hayes said."We will con­tin­ue to ex­pand our pres­ence in this re­gion to bet­ter con­nect fam­i­lies and friends, cre­ate in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness op­por­tu­ni­ties and bring Amer­i­cans to the won­der­ful leisure des­ti­na­tions across the Caribbean," he added.