Coral Air (

IATA code IATA codes are abbreviations that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) publishes to facilitate air travel. They are typically 1, 2, 3, or 4 character combinations (referred to as unigrams, digrams, trigrams, or tetragrams, respect ...

: VY) was an airline from 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 ...

, based in

St. Croix Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...

. It flew from February 1980 to 1985, serving Isla Verde International Airport in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...

as well as

Tortola Tortola () is the largest and most populated island of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It has a surface area of with a total population of 23,908, with 9,400 residents in ...

Nevis Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and ...

and St. Kitts from Alexander Hamilton Airport, St. Croix. It was owned by J.S. Jervis. At one point, Coral Air received GAF Nomad and Shorts SD-330 aircraft, the latter of which allowed the airline to employ flight attendants for their relatively short flights. These aircraft were leased. Eventually, the GAF Nomads were returned to lessor Hughes Aviation Services of the United States. Coral Air was then left with two aircraft, an SD-330 and a

Britten Norman 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 ...

. Lessors increased the rate of the SD-330's lease, so that aircraft was returned too. In 1981, Coral Air filed a petition for reorganization under the

Bankruptcy Act Bankruptcy Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States relating to bankruptcy. The Bill for an Act with this short title ...

. It was rejected during August 6 of 1982, but, at that same date, the courts accepted a secondary plan submitted by the airline and a

shell corporation A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or s ...

named Sun Rae, which never became an actual corporation. Coral Air was then reorganized under the direction of Carol Rae Culliton, Harold M. Cohen and Joseph H. Jaffe, allowing the airline to fly for three more years.

References

Airlines established in 1980 Airlines disestablished in 1985 1980 establishments in the United States Virgin Islands 1985 disestablishments in the United States Virgin Islands Defunct airlines of the United States Defunct airlines of the United States Virgin Islands {{US-airline-stub

See also

References