TRANSCRIPT
Lieutenant Governor Vargrave Richards
Press Conference on American Eagle service, 12.6.04
V.I. Port Authority Conference Room, Henry Rohlsen Airport, St. Croix

"Good morning. I've called you here today to make an announcement that I believe will be of great short and long benefit to the territory.

"In recent months the difficulty with getting reliable inter-island flights between St. Thomas and St. Croix and vice versa has been challenging. I want to make it clear at the outset that it is not an issue of customer service but an issue of seat availability and flight availability. I want to make that very clear. … (The) airlines do a yoeman's job, but they cannot meet the present demands that have been placed upon them.

"In the past several months, we have witnessed a decline in inter-island travel. It has been bad, I believe, for business, and it has been bad for sharing in social and cultural activities and in general it has curtailed the ability to tap in to passengers visiting from other major hubs in the U.S.

"Hence, with this Administration's commitment to spurring economic activity throughout the Territory, we have entered into a "Seasonal Service" arrangement with American eagle to return to accommodating inter-island return flights between St. Croix and St. Thomas.

"Several months ago, or maybe as much as a year ago, we lost the flight between islands with regard to American Eagle. As many of you know, American Eagle pulled out of the Territory back in 2003 … one of your fellow media writers I think cited it as a "major blow" to the Territory's aviation service.

"Throughout the Territory it is viewed as disruptive to the flow of people traffic between islands and as having a disadvantageous impact on economic activity contributed by daily visitors and local businesses.

"The businesses have used American Eagle as well as Cape Air and the seaplane, and continue to use both carriers. However, we think it is important that we bring back American Eagle and some six months ago I decided - or, frankly, after they left it has been my goal to try to work on getting American Eagle back … because they provided the necessary service for not only our business travelers but indeed for our government travelers who used this almost every day for inter-island travel.

"American Eagle as you must be aware is the leading commuter airline throughout the Caribbean. It is also the leading connector airline to major hubs across North America. They are the leading commuter connector airline for all other lines irrespective of which line they service.

"American Eagle and the Territory have enjoyed good relations for well over twenty-some years. So we want to make sure that that relationship continues.

"Because of American Eagle's reputation and our long-standing relationship, I felt it was important to reach out to them to begin discussions relative to their return to the Territory. The Administration was willing to go the extra mile, so to speak, and I believe as we forge partnerships, we're going to have to go the extra mile to make sure some of these things occur. It has been my position with regard to presently the development or St. Croix economic recovery that we reach out and partner with private-sector interests, and essentially this is what is happening here today. The difficulties being experienced lately made the reason more palatable - because, frankly, going back and forth has become a challenge for government employees as well as business people.

"I want to take this opportunity to thank American Eagle/Executive Air, represented here by Mr. Gary Ellmer and Mr. Pedro Fabregas for their willingness to work with us on achieving what we're calling a "seasonal service" agreement, which as you know as I stated earlier, will undoubtedly fill the void in seat and flight availability and which we hope will become a long-term arrangement after this trial period.

"I want to also thank Sandra Brunet of my staff… who really was the key person in negotiating and making this happen.

"This has been a long-term negotiation. We've met back and forth for the last six months. We've exchanged documents… and frankly, one of the things we've learned from this transaction is that it's important to dialogue. We've been dialoguing for some time now.

"To this end, the Government of the Virgin Islands and American Eagle have structured several advantageous fares for flyers, namely:
" The special bulk rates for the government employees -… reduced rates for government employees as they travel to and fro to do government business.
" It also has two packages for passengers who are members of the American Airlines' AAdvantage frequent flyer awards program - will be able to accrue a minimum of 500 Advantage miles per segment from St. Croix to St. Thomas or vice versa.
" They have also agreed to provide the Government of the Virgin Islands 100 promotional fare seats per month at $25 per segment (($25 each way)) for use by the Government of the Virgin Islands for bona fide tourism development and community service interests. Let me elaborate a little bit on that. Throughout the discussion on this, I kept saying I want to be able to move some of the passengers to St. Thomas to St. Croix, the ones that may be taking a daily flight over to St. Croix for the day. We believe that the reduced rate or this particular flagging of this rate, we'll be able to say day travelers from St. Thomas, come to St. Croix, have a day on St. Croix, leave in the morning and go back in the afternoon on the last flight. I think this will be quite an attraction for anyone who wants to expand beyond St. Thomas to come to St. Croix…
" This is a winner for me. How many times have our youth groups not been able to fly inter-island because of the high cost of airfares? The other segment of this - I see the superintendent of education who's in the back there, can appreciate how many times our young people that want to travel inter-island wide for sports and other social activities but are stuck because of the financing associated with it. I am a former teacher myself; I thought long and hard about this, and I thought it would be a key to helping our young people travel back and forth and get a sense socially of St. Thomas and St. Croix.

"When I grew up, we had inter-island meets where we had an opportunity to meet kids from St. Thomas and vice versa. Our kids oftentimes if they play football, baseball, soccer, at times the greatest challenge that they have is the cost of going back and forth between the islands. We have formed many relationships, families, as a result of these inter-island travels and meets, and I think this will go a great way to reinstituting that type of family ties.

"The structure of the "seasonal service" also allows for greater flexibility for passengers or visitors from major hubs, such as New York and Miami, and I'll let the people that know better about that to elaborate on that, but that is a key feature and one that we hold near and dear.

"All in all, I believe that this "seasonal service" arrangement will prove beneficial and it is my hope and intent that this "experiment" - and I say it's an experiment because we will look at it for a good four months, see how viable it is and then we are going to look down the line for the possibility of extending …

"We are going to continue to meet after one month, we'll look at it; after two months, we'll look at it; and then we want to hopefully bring them back permanently. That's the ultimate goal. This is critical and we're looking forward to it.

"Last but not least - and very important as well - as you know we have the European travel. As part of the European visit, some of the Danes travel to St. Thomas and have to get back here for flight departure to Europe, to Denmark. We have also made an arrangement for that segment where the Danes will take this flight, especially when they land here that late in the afternoon, that will take them to St. Thomas, those that are headed to St. Thomas, and be able to bring them back at the end of the week. Another critical piece ... that will help significantly in moving the passengers back and forth.

"The long and short of the story, I think, is commerce - when it's all said and done. We have all seen, read about growth, commerce, and economic recovery for both islands. A win-win situation for all of us, and hopefully this will prove along with our other carriers to be a benefit to the Territory."