Aero Virgin Islands was an

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in which ...

based in St. Thomas, US

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geology, geologically and biogeography, biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Ric ...

History

Aero Virgin Islands Corp. began operating in the Caribbean during the late 1970s. Operations specifications issued by the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

under the

Federal Aviation Regulations The Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) are rules prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) governing all aviation activities in the United States. The FARs comprise Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). A wide variety o ...

, part 121 issued on March 2, 1977, specialized in inter-island flights to and from St. Thomas

Harry S Truman 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 ...

, Alexander Hamilton Airport on

Saint 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 ...

and

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 Mu� ...

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 ju ...

. The names of some of these airports have been changed over the years. The airline had scheduled flights to the three above Islands, plus charter flights to many points in the Caribbean. The airline used DC-3-202 airplanes in the early years for their flights. Around 1984, they began using the

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 ...

A, B and C's (C-47). The aircraft, DC-3 A, B and C's were leased out of Puerto Rico and were formally

Air BVI , hubs = , secondary_hubs = , focus_cities = , frequent_flyer = , lounge = , alliance = , subsidiaries = , fleet_size = 3 , destinations = , company_slogan = , parent ...

's fleet of aircraft. Aero Virgin Islands' main competitor was the

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

based airline,

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 ...

, until 1984, when Prinair went bankrupt. Aero Virgin Islands was the major mover of passengers for the next few years. However, by middle 1989, most of the fleet was nonoperational with no engines on the aircraft. In September 1989, with only two DC-3 operating, Aero Virgin Islands suffered a setback when N28346 was destroyed in St. Thomas Cyril E. King Airport by Hurricane Hugo. Only the N5117X DC-3 (C-47) was able to be repaired of the damage it suffered during the hurricane and returned to service; it had been put in the hangar at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport. The rest of the fleet outside on the ramp in San Juan Int'l Airport were totally destroyed by Hurricane Hugo. In 1986, Aero Virgin Islands Corp. recruited four pilots with DC-3 experience to fly for the airline while they tried unsuccessfully to upgrade their FAA part 135 certificate back to a part 121 certificate and place a Martin 404 on the certificate. The four pilots would be used to offset other pilots who were to be pulled off the line to train on the 404, which they did get. Mr. Peter Pess and Mr. James Beekman were unsuccessful in transitioning Aero Virgin Islands back to be the flag carrier of the Caribbean. Mr. Pess was supposed to supply engines for the DC-3s. Increased competition from such airlines as

LIAT LIAT (1974) Ltd, also known as Leeward Islands Air Transport Services and operating as LIAT, is a regional airline headquartered in Antigua and Barbuda that operated high-frequency inter-island scheduled services to 15 destinations in the Caribb ...

, and American Eagle forced Aero Virgin Islands out of operations by 1990.

Key people

Joseph A. Cranston is listed as general manager in the manual issued on March 21, 1978. Mark K. Odiorne was also one of founders, and he has since died. Mark was listed as vice president of maintenance. James H. Masters was director of operations in one the memos dated March 1980. He was born on the island of St. Croix and grew up on that island. For a short period of time during 1982–1983, Melvin R. Mann (formerly with Peat Marwick Mitchell CPAs in Miami) served as financial VP. Reuben B. Wheatley was the president of Aero Virgin Islands Corp. from the beginning to the end of the airline.

Fleet

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 versi ...

Accidents and incidents

*On January 2, 1978,

N15598 ditched in the sea off

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), ...

. The aircraft was on an international scheduled passenger flight from Saint Thomas Airport,

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 Territories of the United States, uninco ...

to San Juan. All five people on board survived. The cause of the accident was pilot mismanagement of the fuel system, running the starboard tanks dry when there was fuel available in the port tanks. *On September 17, 1989, Douglas DC-3 N4425N,

Douglas C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...

s N100SD, N4471J and N4577Z, were damaged beyond economic repair by Hurricane Hugo at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan Puerto Rico. Douglas C-49J N28346 was damaged beyond economic repair at Cyril E. King Airport, Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands by Hurricane Hugo.

Livery

All cherry-red fuselage, with the name Aero Virgin Islands in black over the front passenger windows.

References