Following a winter with more nonstop warm destinations from here than ever, the Bahamas has seemed like a curious omission from the MSP route map. Now Delta Air Lines has announced 2025-26 service from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Nassau (NAS), the capital of the archipelago nation.

It's our first direct connection to the home of white- and pink-sand beaches, cruise ports, rum, swimming pigs, "Who Let the Dogs Out" and the original Fyre Festival since at least the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Delta, the nearly four-hour flights will take off Saturdays from December to April, and Airbus A319 aircraft will be used. We already found a round-trip fare for Jan. 3-10 for $635 in Basic Economy or $755 in Main Cabin, but these fares are likely to change.

How about safety? The U.S. State Department last week updated the Bahamas at "Level 2: Exercised Increased Caution," the same travel advisory level for most of Western Europe. The department highlighted crime in some urban areas of Nassau and Freeport, boating accidents, "sexual assaults by jet-ski operators" and on beaches, and lastly, sharks.

The Nassau news comes as part of another broad expansion in the Caribbean region by Delta. That includes new routes from its main hub of Atlanta to two traditionally harder-to-reach countries in the Lesser Antilles: St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVD) and Grenada (GND).