Sky High Dominicana at the Cyril E. King Airport on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023.
ST. CROIX — On Wednesday morning, St. Croix welcomed Sky High Dominicana as the airline made its inaugural flight to the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
When the airline came to the territory for the first time in March of this year in St. Thomas, officials promised that St. Croix would soon be added to the flight routes. On Wednesday, representatives of Sky High Dominicana were delighted to announce that the idea of fully connecting the territory to the Dominican Republic, first broached in 2020 had finally come to fruition with the first of many St. Croix flights to come.
"At the end of the day, that's what we are - we are brothers and sisters," said the Sky High official during a short ribbon-cutting ceremony at the airport, noting the strong cultural ties between St. Croix in particular and the people of the Dominican Republic. This was symbolized in the costumes of the dancers welcoming the inaugural flight, wearing the traditional clothing of the DR in the red, white and blue color palette shared by both Dominican and American flags.
Governor Albert Bryan, who welcomed the Sky High Dominicana crew by quipping "mi pueblo es su pueblo," noted the Dominican Republic's population of over 10 million, all of whom are now able to access St. Croix through the new service. The governor believes this bodes well for the administration's effort to increase tourism numbers on the Big Island, and spoke excitedly about the opportunity for travel presented to Virgin Islanders – himself in particular, admitting that he has never been to the Dominican Republic before. "I definitely gon' be on Sky High when I do it," he promised.
A beaming Carlton Dowe, V.I Port Authority executive director who continues to thrust VIPA forward having completed the most projects in the Bryan administration from a single government arm outside of the road paving category, hailed the hard work of scores of officials in both the USVI and DR that went in to ensuring the successful establishment of the twice-weekly DR-STX flights.
"You see the end result, but you don't see all the discussions and behind the scenes," he stated. Mr. Dowe noted that the St. Croix community had been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the new airline, recounting how a resident had volunteered to find a way to fix a malfunctioning baggage belt that had been holding up progress. Reiterating the sentiment that "we are all one people," Mr. Dowe, like the governor, acknowledged the huge tourism potential of this development. "Tourists don't come with their short pants from Minnesota alone," he remarked.
Mr. Dowe also observed that the new connection meant that St. Croix residents would no longer have to travel circuitous routes through Puerto Rico or the mainland to make the trip to the Dominican Republic, which is now only 60 minutes of flight time away. The improvement in efficiency would be a real boon to the territory's tourism product, he said, facilitating travel to and from St. Croix not just to the DR but even further afield due to the Dominican Republic's strong network of travel connections; one could get to Europe, for example, on a direct flight from DR.
With the establishment of Sky High Dominicana's St. Croix service, Virgin Islanders now have a choice of four flights weekly to and from the Dominican Republic: Wednesdays and Sundays on St. Croix, and Mondays and Fridays in St. Thomas.
