Carriers making Caribbean even more alluring

Flying to the Caribbean has never been cheap, but that may be changing. Several of the low-cost carriers that have made inroads among travelers from the Northeast to Florida are pushing farther south, offering flights to several popular Caribbean destinations.

Service is limited, particularly from Boston, but the low-cost airlines plan to expand their operations in the Caribbean in a bid to seize market share from the so-called legacy carriers that have dominated the routes.

JetBlue Airways recently announced plans to begin nonstop service Feb. 2 from Boston to Nassau in the Bahamas. It already serves the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic (Santiago), and Puerto Rico (San Juan, Aguadilla) from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The airline is adding a third Puerto Rico destination, Ponce, in June and also wants to add a daily flight to Cancun, Mexico.

''The Caribbean is an important market for us," JetBlue spokesman Brandon Hamm said. ''There are plenty of JetBlue customers who are interested in traveling to the Caribbean from the Northeast."

Song Airlines, the low-cost Delta Air Lines subsidiary, is serving three Caribbean destinations from Kennedy Airport. It started flying to Nassau last December, San Juan in June, and Aruba in July.

Spirit Airlines, operating one flight daily out of T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I., is offering connecting service through Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Nassau, San Juan, Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and Cancun.

Over the next four months, Spirit plans to launch connecting service through Fort Lauderdale to Kingston and Montego Bay in Jamaica, St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, and Providenciales and Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos.

''We're the leading low-cost carrier to the Caribbean," said Lynne Koreman, spokeswoman for Spirit.

Southwest Airlines, which serves Green and Manchester Airport in New Hampshire, and which is the nation's leading low-cost airline, offers no flights outside the United States.

The low-cost carriers offer lower fares on many, but not all, flights. For example, JetBlue last week was offering an introductory round-trip fare of about $160 to Nassau in early February, but all I could find on Kayak.com was a fare of $260. Delta was charging $240 and American Airlines $262.

Later in February, during school vacation week, the JetBlue round-trip fare rose to $610, which tied Delta's for the lowest nonstop fare. American was charging $517 for a one-stop and Spirit was charging $889 for its one-stop.

Spirit is offering price relief to travelers headed to St. Thomas. A round-trip flight in early January costs $389 on Spirit, compared with $513 on American, according to Kayak.com. Round-trip fares to Kingston run as low as $129 in early January.

To take advantage of these fares, however, a Boston traveler would have to get up very early and then pay for parking at Green, where Spirit's one daily flight to Fort Lauderdale, the launching point for its Caribbean service, leaves at 6:40 a.m.

Koreman minimized the inconvenience. ''They get out of Providence early, so they can make the connection and get to the Caribbean in time for lunch," she said.

Spirit, which started as a charter airline operating out of Detroit and moved its base of operations to Fort Lauderdale in 1999, has 32 planes and offers two customer classes, business and coach. It began flying out of Green a year ago to Florida, and its Caribbean service is just taking off.

''We sense an opportunity to grow the market. We can bring the fares down so more people can travel," Koreman said. ''People in cold places like to go to warm places in the winter."

Contact Bruce Mohl at mohl@globe.com.