Bermuda’s direct daily year-round service to Miami with American Airlines will return on November 5, the transport minister announced yesterday.

Wayne Furbert also revealed that no minimum-revenue guarantee had been used as a sweetener to restore the service to the gateway city, which was dropped for the summer this year.

Mr Furbert could not guarantee a permanent restoration of the route, adding: “They have told us they will fly for at least next year. Whether it’s for following years, things change.”

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The agreement was reached in an October 11 meeting with AA officials at the carrier’s headquarters near Dallas, Texas, when the airline reported “strong recovery” in passenger numbers for its routes to Bermuda from New York JFK, Philadelphia, Charlotte and Miami.

The Miami flight will join American’s existing year-round connections from JFK and Charlotte.

He noted that the Miami service “used to be used a lot by Bermudians”.

Mr Furbert said the move, with JetBlue resuming daily service to Boston and the launch of BermudAir serving “three significant East Coast markets”, marked a “milestone in our efforts to expand our reach”.

AA has introduced a larger aircraft departing from New York with more business class seats.

“WestJet will not be flying to Bermuda,” Mr Furbert said, referencing Canada’s second-largest carrier. “They have made a business decision to concentrate their efforts on the west coast of Canada.

“Because of that, we have asked Air Canada to consider giving more flights. What they have said is they would increase for larger aircraft.”

Mr Furbert was unable to specify when the increase would go ahead, citing “challenges” that have beset the global air industry, but said he had asked Air Canada to look at proceeding this winter.

Air Canada is to convert back to its traditional-sized aircraft in “the near future”, also adding business capacity.

WestJet dropped its service to Bermuda in September.

• For the minister’s full statement, see Related Media