Antonio Rivera Rodríguez Airport is a public airport on the island of

Vieques Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island, town and municipality of Puerto Rico, and together with Culebra, it is geographically part of the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques lies about east of the mainland of Puerto Rico, measuri ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. Because a large amount of Vieques's yearly revenue comes from the tourism industry, this airport plays an important part in the Vieques economy. For decades, the airport has been the hub of

Vieques Air Link Vieques Air Link (VAL, IATA code: V4) is a small VFR (Visual Flight Rules) Puerto Rico-based airline that operates under FAR Part 135, that links Vieques, Puerto Rico, Vieques and Culebra, Puerto Rico, Culebra with mainland Puerto Rico. Hist ...

, and also a destination for a number of small airlines. It is included in the

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. With the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of September 3, 1982, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was required to develop a ...

for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year).

History

When anti-military demonstrators started flocking into Vieques in 1999, Vieques Airport saw a considerable increase to its normal yearly average of passengers. In addition, many celebrities who travelled from all over

and the rest of

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

to join the protesters arrived at Vieques through this airport. When

Carla Tricoli Carla Tricoli Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2003. As a child, Tricoli enjoyed music and she played the cuatro, an instrument that is popular in Puerto Rican music. As an actr ...

, a Vieques native, won the 2002

Miss Puerto Rico Miss Puerto Rico is a national title bestowed on the women representing Puerto Rico in international beauty pageants. Although an Territories of the United States, American territory, Puerto Rico participates in international sports competitions ...

contest, her first flight as a beauty queen landed at Vieques Airport. The airport does not accept

jet aircraft A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by one or more jet engines. Whereas the engines in Propeller (aircraft), propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much ...

, but several international flights operate from it. Most of the commercial aviation operations are domestic flights such as to

Ceiba ''Ceiba'' is a genus of trees in the family Malvaceae, native to Tropics, tropical and Subtropics, subtropical areas of the Americas (from Mexico and the Caribbean to northern Argentina) and tropical West Africa. Some species can grow to tall ...

, to Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, and to

Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Aeropuerto Internacional Luis Muñoz Marín'') , previously known as Isla Verde International Airport (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Aeropuerto Internacional de Isla Verde''), ...

in Carolina, a suburb of

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

Air ambulance Air medical services are the use of aircraft, including both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to provide various kinds of urgent medical care, especially prehospital, emergency and critical care to patients during aeromedical evacuation an ...

flights to San Juan are also available. Early in 2005, plans were announced to expand the airport's runway, so that the airport could accept flights by smaller jets. This would be done in preparation for American Eagle to start operations to the airport on behalf of

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

via a

code sharing A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

agreement. The airline was expected to start flights to Vieques from San Juan's Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in early 2010; however, American Eagle decided not to begin service and then subsequently ceased all code sharing flights on behalf of American in the Caribbean.

Facilities

Antonio Rivera Rodríguez Airport covers an area of at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has one runway designated 9/27 with an asphalt surface measuring .

Airlines and destinations

Scheduled passenger service is provided by the following airlines:

Statistics

Accidents and incidents

* On December 19, 1977, a

Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander The Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander is a British light utility aircraft and regional airliner designed and originally manufactured by Britten-Norman of the United Kingdom. Still in production, the Islander is one of the best-selling commercial air ...

operated by

en route from St. Croix ditched off of Vieques due to fuel exhaustion. Five passengers of the 10 on board were killed. * A Beechcraft A100 King Air which belonged to Padosa Productions-a musical label to which boy band Menudo belonged-crashed with 11 people on board, 2 crew members and nine passengers, on Wednesday, August 17, 1983. The plane was on a flight from Alexander Hamilton International Airport in St. Croix,

U.S. Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located ...

to Isla Verde International Airport in San Juan, with a stop-over at Vieques, when it confronted lifting problems on take-off from Vieques to San Juan, hitting citrus trees before it was able to stop. While there were no injuries reported, the airplane suffered substantial damage. It is unknown whether band director Edgardo Diaz or any of the band's members at the time ( Johnny Lozada,

Ricky Melendez Ricky may refer to: Places *Říčky, a municipality and village in the Czech Republic *Říčky, a village and part of Orlické Podhůří in the Czech Republic *Říčky v Orlických horách, a municipality and village in the Czech Republic *Ri ...

Charlie Masso Carlos Javier Rivera Massó (born June 13, 1969 in San Juan, Puerto Rico), better known as Charlie Massó, is a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican singer and actor. Massó is a former member of Menudo (band), Menudo, joining the band at the height of M ...

Ray Reyes Ray Reyes León (March 13, 1970 – April 30, 2021) was a Puerto Rican singer who was a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo. Career He was born in New York City and was raised in Levittown, a neighborhood in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, th ...

and

Roy Rossello Roy or Roi is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origins. France In France, this family name originated from the Normans, the descendants of Norse Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia ...

) were in the plane when it crashed. * Vieques Air Link Flight 901A – On August 2, 1984, a BN-2 Islander of Vieques Air Link crashed after take-off, killing all nine passengers and crew.

References

External links

* *
Antonio Rivera Rodriguez Airport
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonio Rivera Rodriguez Airport Vieques, Puerto Rico Airports in Puerto Rico