For many destinations in the Caribbean, small regional airlines are a life blood — and for two decades, Cape Air has been just that for so many islands.
Now, Cape Air has officially relaunched two important routes from San Juan, with flights to Puerto Rico’s island of Culebra and to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands.
The new service will be operating four flights daily between San Juan and Culebra, and three daily between San Juan and Virgin Gorda, both instantly providing a significant boost for the islands.
The two routes are also likely to see service increases over time; Cape Air tends to launch routes with three or four frequencies per day before raising that number to as many as eight or 12 every day.
The return of both services, which had last operated two years ago, is part of a bigger push for the airline, which is based in Massachusetts but has long been one of the most crucial carriers in the northeastern Caribbean, with an existing flight network that includes Tortola, St Thomas, Vieques, San Juan and Mayaguez and St Croix, the latter a market that is seeing very strong growth in particular.
“Culebra and Virgin Gorda were historically great markets for us, and we think we’re the right size for those communities and we’re really excited to come back there,” Cape Air CEO Dan Wolf told Caribbean Journal in an exclusive interview. “In the fall, we’re looking to reenergize Anguilla and Nevis.”
The company is also looking to start service between Mayaguez on the west coast of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
“Those [flights] are either starting soon or within the next year,” he said. “Beyond that, we’re continuing to look for other opportunities.”
The new routes come as Cape Air has reactivated its Britten-Norman Islander aircraft, planes that specialize in the short runways that populate many of the region’s smaller destinations like Culebra and Virgin Gorda…
