Air St. Thomas was an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

based on the island of St. Thomas, in the

United States Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...

. It operated regular and

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

passenger services. Its main base was

Cyril E. King Airport Cyril E. King Airport is a public airport located two miles (3 km) west of the central business district of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. It is currently the busiest airport in the Un ...

, St Thomas.

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...

27 March 2007 It ceased operations in December 2005. The company, founded in 1975, was banned in March 2004 on the French airports and is since then blacklisted. This commuter air carrier had a very small fleet and did not operate long haul routes.

Code data

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

Code: ZP *

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

Code: STT

History

The airline was established in 1970 and was known as Virgin Air until 1984. Through the 1970s and well into the 1990s, Air St. Thomas faced stiff competition from Puerto Rico International Airlines,

Aero Virgin Islands Aero Virgin Islands was an airline based in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. History Aero Virgin Islands Corp. began operating in the Caribbean during the late 1970s. Operations specifications issued by the Federal Aviation Administration und ...

and

Vieques Air Link Vieques Air Link (VAL, IATA code:V4) is a small Puerto Rico-based airline that links Vieques with Culebra and mainland Puerto Rico. History Operations began during 1965, with owner Osvaldo "Val" Gonzalez-Duriex piloting a plane with three ...

, among others. Because of this, the airline concentrated mainly on intra island flights. Puerto Rico International Airlines (

Prinair Prinair is a Puerto Rican charter operator airline. It was Puerto Rico's domestic and international flag carrier airline for almost two decades from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Despite previously ceasing scheduled commercial operations twice ...

) flew from 1966 to 1984, and Aero Virgin Islands flew until 2000. While Vieques Air Link still operates, Air St. Thomas did not directly compete with it as Vieques Air Link did not serve St. Thomas. One of Air St. Thomas largest competitors was

American Eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

. American Eagle in the Caribbean was a

code sharing In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

partner for

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

and its hub operations at

Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport ( es, link=no, Aeropuerto Internacional Luis Muñoz Marín) is a joint civil-military international airport located in suburban Carolina, Puerto Rico, southeast of San Juan. It is named for Luis Muño ...

(SJU) have been since shut down and are no longer being operated on behalf of American in the region. After Puerto Rico International Airlines and Aero Virgin Islands began to slowly pull away from the market, Air St. Thomas began to grow, adding flights, specifically to Puerto Rican

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

s as well as other regional destinations in the Caribbean. The airline officially became an international airline when it added flights to the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Brit ...

. The airline was owned by Paul Wikander (51%) and M. Wikander (49%).

Destinations

Air St. Thomas served the following destinations in January 2005: Culebra,

Fajardo Fajardo (, ) is a town and municipality -Fajardo Combined Statistical Area. Fajardo is the hub of much of the recreational boating in Puerto Rico and a popular launching port to Culebra, Vieques, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. It is ...

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

and

Virgin Gorda Virgin Gorda () is the third-largest island (after Tortola and Anegada) and second-most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Geography Located at about 18 degrees, 48 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area o ...

. The main route was between St.Thomas and St.Barthlemey F.W.I up till 2004.

Fleet

Britten-Norman Trislander The Britten-Norman Trislander (more formally designated the BN-2A Mk III Trislander) is an 18-seat three-engined piston-powered civilian utility aircraft produced in the 1970s and early 1980s by Britten-Norman of Britain. These STOL capable a ...

Cessna 402 The Cessna 401 and 402 are a series of 6 to 10 seat, light twin-piston engine aircraft. This line was manufactured by Cessna from 1966 to 1985 under the name Utiliner and Businessliner.Montgomery, MR & Gerald Foster: ''A Field Guide to Airplane ...

Piper Aztec The Piper PA-23, named Apache and later Aztec, is an American four- to six-seat twin-engined light aircraft aimed at the general-aviation market. The United States Navy and military forces in other countries also used it in small numbers. Origin ...

*2 Piper Apache *4

Beech 18 The Beechcraft Model 18 (or "Twin Beech", as it is also known) is a 6- to 11-seat, twin-engined, low-wing, tailwheel light aircraft manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. Continuously produced from 1937 to November ...

( 2 Cargo 2 Passenger ) *2

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

Cargo

References

External links