Local Airline back on the scene in VG, filling a 19-year void!
Yesterday, January 20, 2013, VI Airlink confirmed that they were the only VI registered airline into Virgin Gorda since 1994 and that they conducted the required training for their pilots to be able to perform flights in and out of Virgin Gorda to various destinations- a move which will see them now adding Virgin Gorda to its Anegada, and St Thomas schedule, and is poised to perform schedule service between Virgin Gorda and St Maarten. VI Airlink can also now provide charters to numerous destinations out of Virgin Gorda.
This was related to Virgin Islands News Online by Captain Norville C. Brathwaite, who was the Chief Pilot and Training Captain. According to Mr. Braithwaite, the training entailed a verbal briefing on the airport and the surrounding terrain much to the benefit of two captains who have been flying into Virgin Gorda more years than any other airline operating in the VI.
“You must have more than fifteen hundred hours of flight time, a verbal briefing, and five takeoffs and landings in Virgin Gorda,” he explained. The training dealt in-depth with terrain awareness, various approaches and procedures into the airport and various departures and procedures.
The local Aircraft Specialist and Captain said that Virgin Gorda has the second largest island population and the majority of the Virgin Islands based tourists are in Virgin Gorda, “… and the BVI's biggest resorts are also there.”
VI Airlink is a legacy started by Capt. Neville Brathwaite Sr. back in 1977, which still lives on today. It became the VI's only "BVI registered airline" in 2009. The family-ownd company operates two of the VI's three locally registered airplanes that still exist up to today. “VI Airlink is the only BVI airline to ever fly the entire Caribbean Basin and the Americas on commercial flights,” said the confident Captain whose company as a management has a combined 72 years of experience and reportedly has more experience flying in and out of the VI than any other operator today.
The captain said that as flights pick up out of Virgin Gorda, more pilots will be trained and that one day of training is enough on the count that the pilots trained have thousands of landings into Virgin Gorda. He also said that they are well equipped to do emergency day time medical evacuations out of Virgin Gorda
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13 Responses to “Local Airline back on the scene in VG, filling a 19-year void!”
Do you want to be in their shoes?
You have no clue about how that industry works. government alone cannot make that airline profitable, it needs sound private investment. how many local millionnaires do you know willing to help them? we have lots of rich locals but they only care about themselves. government dont have to do every damn thing. liat is a good example, government money beign pumped into a half-@$$ed operation.