Silver Airways at the Cyril E. King Airport.
Silver Airways will resume airport flights between St. Croix and St. Thomas on May 8th, the company has confirmed to the Consortium, marking the carrier's return to a suddenly options-filled air travel between the two islands that Silver abandoned years ago.
With Silver Airways' announcement, travel between St. Thomas and St. Croix is seeing an instantaneous revival, providing residents and visitors alike with at least four ways to travel back and forth. Once Silver joins the other carriers on May 8th, inter-island travel options will include Fly the Whale, Cape Air, Seaflight, and Silver Airways. Silver also offers inter-island flights through its seaplane operation.
Silver's return comes on the heels of new airline Fly the Whale's launch of inter-island travel, and the new carrier has been well received by residents and government officials alike.
The competition is expected to benefit customers as the carriers jockey for the attention and for the dollars of travelers. Governor Albert Bryan recently commented on the benefits to travelers, and he also noted the multiplier effect on the entire economy: from new jobs to more robust inter-island commerce. To kickstart the process, the governor has announced a program to be launched soon through the V.I. Dept. of Tourism that will provide ticket discounts to residents who travel inter-island to participate in leisure activities.
"Pay attention and make sure you hear when we announce that if you're flying on any airline between St. Thomas and St. Croix, we're going to give you credits to go see some attractions," the governor said. "So you will be paying a much reduced cost to zip line or play golf, or whatever it is that you want to do on the other island. Tell your friends, tell the guests, tell the residents. This is going to be a great thing for us, we want to encourage as much inter-island travel as possible during the summer."
