Delta Air Lines is to resume non-stop flights between Detroit and Grand Cayman this winter, with the service starting in December 2025 and running until April 2026.
A statement from the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism said that the return of the Detroit service from such a major Delta hub was “a testament to the growing demand for the Cayman Islands during this period” and said it would be working closely with the US airline to promote the route.
“We are thrilled to welcome back Delta Air Lines’ non-stop service between Detroit and Grand Cayman,” said Director of Tourism Rosa Harris. “This route was a beloved connection for travellers prior to the pandemic, and it remained one of the only pre-pandemic routes that hadn’t returned to our destination. Its return this winter completes a significant chapter in the recovery of our tourism industry.”
Making the announcement to delegates at the 2025 CAPA Airline Leader Summit – Americas at Hotel Indigo on Friday, Harris said that the Cayman Islands had been aggressively promoting itself as a destination around the world, adding, “A year ago, it felt like this particular service for us was gone and it would never come back … it’s a true testament of relationship building.”
The weekly service between Detroit and Grand Cayman on Delta Air Lines will start operating on 20 Dec. 2025 and run until 12 April 2026.
Summit hosts
Cayman Islands was the host of this year’s 2025 CAPA Airline Leader Summit – Americas which saw delegates from around the world attend two days of networking and debates as well as experiencing Cayman Islands’ attractions such as Seven Mile Beach, Pedro St. James, an ATV tour of Barkers and boat trips around the island.
In a panel discussion called ‘What is the future of Caribbean tourism?’ Harris gave details of the tourism strategy for the islands.
“The wonderful selling point of the Cayman Islands is that we have three distinctly different islands that we promote. Everyone is familiar with Grand Cayman, but we also like to shift the focus to Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are wonderful experiences,” she said. “What we have observed with our clientele is that they appreciate the quiet lifestyle, the understated, casual, barefoot luxury here.”
Harris added, “Since COVID, persons don’t want to be in huge crowds. There’s a lot of concern for remaining healthy as well as paying for a more exclusive experience.”
“Our aim is to ensure that tourism touches every island that we have in our country, and that our people benefit from it,” she said. “Where we see ourselves is to target the right people and expand the number of islands they visit, how much they spend and their repeat visitation rate.”
Harris added that the tourism department’s goal was about more than “just dropping people on the islands” but they were working hard to spread visits out across the year. “We have some really big peaks and valleys, particularly September, October, November, and we’re working really hard on trying to raise those valleys.”
Also representing the Cayman Islands at the conference was Fabian Whorms, CEO of Cayman Airways.
“As a government-owned airline, we generally never plan 10 years ahead,” he told delegates. “It might sound as if that’s not prudent, but we’ve been around for 57 years this year – 69 years, if you count Cayman Brac Airways.”
“It’s a lot of short-term to medium-term thinking,” he said, “never looking too far ahead. And sometimes that works, because if your plans are too strong, looking too far ahead, you can get stuck in a situation.”
Whorms said that Cayman Airways was in a good position to weather any economic turbulence.
“I don’t want to sound elitist, but our product is targeted towards the higher-spending tourists,” he said. “Historically, there’s always been a bit of resilience in our product to adverse global economic changes. If you take a jurisdiction like our neighbour, Jamaica, and the type of tourists that they attract, they’re not as resilient as we are to shifts in economic patterns and demand that arise, for instance, out of North America, [but] nobody has a crystal ball.”
