Vieques Air Link

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Vieques Air Link
Vieques Air Link Logo.png
IATA ICAO Callsign
V4VESVIEQUES
Founded1965 (1965)
AOC # VLIA127A [1]
Hubs Antonio Rivera Rodríguez Airport
Secondary hubs Roosevelt Roads Airport(TJRV), “Roosevelt Roads Aviation Services, LLC”
Focus cities CPX, RVR, SIG, VQS
Fleet size12
Destinations4 Destinations Scheduled(SIG, VQS, RVR, CPX), other 4 Dest. have to be Charter Flights.
Parent company Blue Water Air Charters LLC
HeadquartersSanturce, Puerto Rico
Key peopleCarlos Rodriguez
Employees35
Website viequesairlink.com
A Vieques Air Link Britten-Norman BN-2A Mk3-2 Trislander N906VL Vieques Air Link Britten-Norman BN-2A Mk3-2 Trislander CN1060 (4257223448).jpg
A Vieques Air Link Britten-Norman BN-2A Mk3-2 Trislander

Vieques Air Link (VAL, IATA code: V4) is a small Puerto Rico-based airline that links Vieques andCulebra with mainland Puerto Rico.

Contents

History

Operations began during 1965, with owner Osvaldo "Val" Gonzalez-Duriex piloting a plane with three passengers from Vieques to Humacao. A Cherokee aircraft and another airplane were also acquired later, allowing the airline to serve Isla Verde International Airport.

In 1968, Vieques Air Link added a flight to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.

In 1980 Fajardo Airport in Fajardo was built and Vieques Air Link started flights to the new airport immediately. In the 1980s the company increased the frequency of flights to San Juan, Humacao and Culebra. In 1989, Vieques Air Link lost its entire fleet to Hurricane Hugo. However, it soon acquired seven Britten-Norman Islanders and three Trislanders.

In the 1990s VAL got into financial trouble. However, with the Vieques conflict, more and more Puerto Ricans began flying Vieques Air Link every day to go to military camps to protest, and the police also had to fly their personnel and the people arrested in those areas on VAL planes at various times. Others, like political leaders Ruben Berrios and Fernando Martín, and the 2002 Miss Puerto Rico Carla Tricoli, who is a Viequense, have had pictures taken by the press aboard VAL planes while flying to Vieques, giving the airline a new wave of unpaid-for promotional attention. In addition, in June 2000, the airline made the cover of Islander News magazine, under the headline "Vieques Air Link: How To Survive a Hurricane", about the airline's fleet loss of 1989 and how it survived the potentially fatal financial disaster. [2]

In 2008, VAL added a new route between Antonio Rivera Rodríguez Airport (VQS) in Vieques and the new José Aponte de la Torre Airport (RVR) at the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Ceiba, shortening the flight between Vieques and the Puerto Rican mainland to seven or eight minutes in a Cessna Caravan.

Destinations

Vieques Air Link provides service at the following locations: [3]

[Hub] Hub
[F]Future destination
[S]Seasonal
[T]Charter destinations
Scheduled Destinations
CityCountryIATAICAOAirportRefs
Aguadilla, Puerto Rico Flag of Puerto Rico.svg  Puerto Rico BQNTJBQ Rafael Hernandez Airport [4]
Ceiba, Puerto Rico Flag of Puerto Rico.svg  Puerto Rico RVRTJRV José Aponte de la Torre Airport
Culebra Flag of Puerto Rico.svg  Puerto Rico CPXTJCP Benjamín Rivera Noriega Airport
San Juan Flag of Puerto Rico.svg  Puerto Rico SIGTJIG Isla Grande Airport
San Juan Flag of Puerto Rico.svg  Puerto Rico SJUTJSJ Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport
St. Croix Flag of the United States Virgin Islands.svg  United States Virgin Islands STXTISX Henry E. Rohlsen Airport
St. Thomas, USVI Flag of the United States Virgin Islands.svg  United States Virgin Islands STTTIST Cyril E. King Airport
Vieques Flag of Puerto Rico.svg  Puerto Rico VQSTJVQ Antonio Rivera Rodríguez Airport

Fleet

AircraftIn fleetNotes
Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six 3Pax
Britten-Norman Islander 7Pax/Med Transport
Britten-Norman Trislander 1Cargo

Accidents and incidents

See also

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References

  1. "Federal Aviation Administration - Airline Certificate Information - Detail View". av-info.faa.gov. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  2. "BN Islander Historians 65 2000 June Vieques Air Link | eBay". Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
  3. "Vieques Air Link: Schedule". Archived from the original on February 15, 2012.
  4. Suarez, Manuel (December 26, 1976). "What's Doing in PUERTO RICO". The New York Times.
  5. http://despiertaboricua.tumblr.com/post/11521423866/lista-de-atentados-terroristas-hacia-puerto-rico [ user-generated source ]
  6. "Aircraft Accident Report: Vieques Air Link, Inc., Britten-Norman BN-2A-6 Islander, N589SA. Vieques, Puerto Rico. August 2, 1984" (PDF). NTSB. September 27, 1985. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. "Archives - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times . May 7, 2000.
  8. "2 dead after small plane crashes in waters near Puerto Rico". ABC News .