Manchester-based ASM – the world leading advisor on air service development issues – announced that it has secured further flights into St. Lucia in its role as consultant to the Island’s Tourist Board. The British Airways service from Gatwick will operate five times weekly from October 2009 and follows hard on the heels of the announcement of a new service to the increasingly popular Caribbean destination from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport from low cost carrier JetBlue. A new direct service to St. Lucia from Frankfurt was also finalized with ASM’s support in March 2009.

ASM has supported the St. Lucia Tourism Board in selling the advantages of further expansion to St. Lucia to British Airways, and on the agreement of a joint marketing campaign to promote the increase in capacity from three to five flights a week.

“The news reinforces the point that intense activity is continuing in the route development sector even in these difficult economic times,” said ASM Principal Consultant, Jon Woolf. “Any market and customer focused airport, carrier or other agency will be positioning itself for the future. And that means doing everything possible to protect and develop existing routes as well as planning new ones.”

St. Lucia is located in the eastern Caribbean - one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world – and is one of a chain of tropical islands running between North and South America and east of Central America.

ASM was founded in 1993 and was the first management consulting company specialising in the field of route development for airports. ASM works exclusively for airports and other stakeholders affected by air service development, helping them expand their route networks and bring economic development to their surrounding regions.