June 1st, 2019
After two years without regular air service, Cape Air is returning to Virgin Gorda. In an Cape Air press release on March 4, 2019 they stated, “Cape Air continues its support to the Caribbean region by reinstating service between San Juan and Culebra and between San Juan and Virgin Gorda. Beginning on April 10th, four daily flights will operate between San Juan and Culebra and three daily flights will operate between San Juan and Virgin Gorda. Passengers can book their reservations now on capeair.com or by calling 800-CAPE-AIR (284-495-2100 in the BVI).”
According to the Cape Air website, there are now two flights daily to Virgin Gorda from San Juan and three flights daily returning from Virgin Gorda to San Juan available for booking.
According to the release, Cape Air will operate The Britten Norman Islander BN-2 that is specifically suited to the needs of short runway markets like Virgin Gorda. The Britten-Norman Islander is a nine-passenger, high wing, twin-engine aircraft with the capability to land on short runways.
“Amplifying our connectivity throughout the Caribbean and from the mainland United States has been without doubt one of our priorities at the Tourist Board. The reinstatement of the San Juan-Virgin Gorda route gives British Virgin Islands guests another easy and accessible alternative to reach our Nature’s Little Secrets. We are very happy that Cape Air is connecting San Juan and Virgin Gorda directly once again, as we share an undeniable bond with our neighboring island and wish to see all our Puerto Rican friends back to our beautiful shores soon,” said Sharon Flax Brutus, Director of Tourism of the British Virgin Islands.
Cape Air has been offering frequent daily flights throughout the Caribbean since 1998. With its Caribbean hub in San Juan, Cape Air operates more than 80 daily flights to St. Thomas, St. Croix, Tortola, Vieques, Mayaguez, and now Culebra and Virgin Gorda.
BVI Traveller was created in September of 2017 to help tourism in the British Virgin Islands recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma.
To that end, we met our goals. In the past 7 years there have been over 1.2 million visits to the website and over 3 million pages have been viewed. There are over 1,000 pages on the site featuring news posts and detailed listings on all hotels, villas, restaurants and sailing charters located in the BVI. The BVI Government and many business, hotels, villas and sailing charters have all agreed that the site “moved the needle on tourism” after Irma.
The site, however, has run its course. It has served its purpose by bringing visitors and local businesses together to rebuild the tourist industry and it is now time to shut down operations for good.
I want to thank everyone for your help and support.
Chuck Metter