Direct Flights to Grenada from the US and Canada: Who Flies Where

Grenada has one international airport, Maurice Bishop International (code GND) at Point Salines on the south-western tip of the island, and every jet from North America lands there. The number of non-stop routes is small enough to memorise, which is useful, because the choice of gateway decides how long your travel day is and how much it costs.

In broad terms there are two year-round lifelines from the United States, New York and Miami, plus a handful of routes that appear for the winter and fade out after Easter. From Canada, Toronto is the only city with non-stop service. Everyone else connects. This page sets out who flies where, what changes between seasons, and the small decisions that save a wasted day.

The non-stop routes, airline by airline

Schedules are filed season by season and airlines adjust frequencies at short notice, so treat this as the shape of the network rather than a timetable. Check the airline itself before you build a trip around a particular day.

• JetBlue from New York JFK — the longest-running daily link to the US north-east, roughly five hours each way. In some winters JetBlue has also added a weekly Boston flight.
• American Airlines from Miami — daily, about three and a half hours, and the easiest way to connect from almost anywhere in the Americas because of the size of the Miami hub.
• American Airlines from Charlotte — a seasonal weekend flight in the winter months, useful for the south-east and mid-west.
• Delta from Atlanta — operated as a winter-season service in recent years, ending in April. Whether it returns, and on which days, is announced each autumn.
• Air Canada from Toronto Pearson — several flights a week, strongest in winter.
• WestJet from Toronto — a seasonal winter service; the former Sunwing holiday flights are now part of WestJet.

Miami or New York: choosing your US gateway

For travellers in the eastern United States the decision is mostly geography. If you live within reach of New York, the JetBlue non-stop avoids a connection entirely and lands in the early afternoon, which leaves time to reach a hotel on the south coast before dark. From New England, the mid-Atlantic and upstate New York, a short positioning hop into JFK is often cheaper than routing through Miami.

Miami wins for the rest of the country. American and its partners feed Miami from dozens of US cities, Latin America and Europe, and the Grenada flight is timed to collect those connections. The trade-off is that the Miami flight is a single daily rotation: if your inbound is late and you miss it, the next seat is usually the following day. Leave a generous connection, and on the way home remember that you clear US immigration and customs in Miami before your onward flight.

Atlanta and Charlotte are worth checking in winter because they open up one-stop journeys from cities that otherwise need two connections, but they are not daily and they are not year-round.

Flying from Canada

Toronto Pearson is the only Canadian airport with non-stop service. Air Canada flies it through most of the year, with more frequencies from late October to April, and WestJet adds seasonal capacity in winter. The flight takes roughly five hours and arrives in daylight on most schedules. Grenada has a large diaspora in the Greater Toronto Area, so these flights fill up around Christmas, Easter and the August Carnival period, often months ahead.

From Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and the Maritimes, the practical choice is a connection through Toronto on a single Air Canada or WestJet ticket. A connection through a US hub is possible but means US transit rules, which for most travellers include a full US entry inspection even if you never leave the airport. Caribbean Airlines also links Toronto with Port of Spain in Trinidad, from where it is a short hop to Grenada; that route suits travellers already planning a stop in Trinidad.

Everyone else: one-stop itineraries

If you live in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles or most other US cities, plan for one connection, almost always Miami, with New York, Atlanta or Charlotte as alternatives in winter. Book the whole journey on one ticket. That way the airline is responsible for re-booking you when a delay breaks the connection, and your checked bag is transferred automatically.

Avoid the temptation to stitch together a cheap domestic fare and a separate Grenada fare with a tight gap. Separate tickets mean you collect and re-check bags, and if the first flight is late the second airline has no obligation to help. On a route served once a day, that mistake costs a night in a hub hotel and a new ticket at walk-up prices.

West coast travellers sometimes find a red-eye to New York or Miami followed by the morning Grenada flight works better than a daytime itinerary. It is a long day either way, so build in an easy first evening.

Mistakes that cost people a day

Assuming winter routes run all year. The Atlanta and Charlotte services, the second Toronto carrier and any Boston flight are seasonal. Searching for a July trip and finding nothing on those routes is normal, not a glitch.

Ignoring the timetable change in late October. Airlines switch to winter schedules at the end of October and back at the end of March. Days of operation and departure times often move, so re-check bookings made far in advance.

Leaving no slack on the way home. Return flights from Grenada leave from early afternoon. Delays on the outbound aircraft ripple into US connections, so avoid booking the last onward flight of the evening from Miami or New York.

Forgetting Grenada sits outside daylight saving. Grenada stays on Atlantic Standard Time, four hours behind GMT, all year. When the US and Canada change their clocks, the time difference to Grenada shifts by an hour, which catches out people arranging airport pickups.

Booking peak weeks late. Christmas, Easter and the run-up to Spicemas in August sell out on every North American route because Grenadians abroad travel home at the same time.

Fares, booking windows and the price of convenience

Fares to Grenada behave differently from fares to big Caribbean destinations such as Jamaica or the Dominican Republic. With only a few routes and modest seat numbers, there is little price competition on any single day, and fares climb steeply once the cheaper buckets on a flight are sold. The practical consequence is that booking early matters more than hunting for a last-minute deal.

For the main winter season, from mid-December to mid-April, many travellers book three to six months ahead, and for Christmas or Carnival even earlier. For the quieter months of May, June, September and October, shorter booking windows can work, and these are the months when fares through Miami are most likely to drop.

It is also worth pricing the whole journey rather than the headline fare. A slightly dearer non-stop from New York can cost less overall than a cheaper Miami routing once you add a hub hotel after a missed connection, an extra meal and a lost beach day. Compare checked-bag charges too: some fares on these routes include a bag and others do not, and the difference adds up for families.

Finally, check the return timing. Northbound flights leave Grenada in the early afternoon, so the last morning is short; if you are staying in the far north or on Carriacou, a night near the airport before flying is sensible.

Frequently asked questions