Tobago is to end its airlift contract with Virgin Atlantic early next year following a strategic review.
The carrier will stop operating its direct weekly flight from Heathrow to the Caribbean island on January 11.
Flights to the island resumed in January 2022 as part of wider restart to the Caribbean region.
However, Tobago Tourism Agency Limited (TTAL) has today announced plans to discontinue the airlift contract, explaining why the “difficult decision” was taken.
Alicia Edwards, TTAL’s executive chairman, said: “The return on investment for the Virgin Atlantic airlift subsidy funded by the public sector has been deteriorating steadily over the years, to the point where the renewal of their contract could not be logically defended and executed.
“In reassessing our destination’s tourism product, state of the industry post-pandemic and other tangible considerations, destination Tobago is not the best fit for a partnership with Virgin at this time.”
She added: “The agency, and by extension the destination, is grateful to the Virgin team for their tenure of the partnership, and we are confident that we will be able to revisit a relationship with them in the future.”
Several flight options remain for the UK market including a British Airways flight operating twice weekly between Gatwick and Tobago.
British Airways also operates five flights per week between London and Port of Spain in Trinidad with a 20-minute transfer to Tobago via the domestic Caribbean Airlines route.