Islands of St Thomas and St Croix targeted 

The United States Virgin Islands is currently in the airline market space, seeking more airlift for the Caribbean destination.

The country is targeting the islands of St Thomas and St Croix for airline route expansion. The US Virgin Islands sent a delegation to the major Routes World conference in Las Vegas, including a high-profile meeting with American Airlines. 

The meeting with American Airlines officials focused on the destination’s concerns of the “severe impact” on residents and tourists in St Croix and St Thomas in light of the carrier’s recent announcement of flight cuts to the territory. The flight cuts are set to begin next month, leaving the destination with reduced airlift beginning November 4 through late March 2023. 

AA says the move is due to “economic considerations,” along with pilot and crew shortages and fuel issues. Commissioner for the US Virgin Islands Department of Tourism, Joseph Boschulte, in an effort to convince the American carrier to reconsider its decision, stated that the US Virgin Islands is leading the Caribbean in terms of air arrivals with a 44 per cent increase compared to 2019. 

According to him, “US Virgin Island’s Tourism Department and Governor Albert Bryan have had an on-going series of in-person meetings and negotiations with all the major airlines throughout the year to add more flights to the airports on both islands… . We offer airlines a mix of aggressive incentives that can include reductions in airport fees and increasing our advertising spend in markets with direct flights to the Territory.”

Boschulte advised that the destination is doing everything possible to persuade all airlines to not only maintain their routes to St Croix and St Thomas, but to expand their flight frequencies given the destination’s exponential growth these past two years emerging out of the pandemic.