Brent Pin­heiro

brent.pin­heiro@guardian.co.tt

Caribbean Air­lines’ re­gion­al net­work ex­pan­sion con­tin­ued to­day as the air­line be­gan com­mer­cial ser­vice to Tor­to­la, British Vir­gin Is­lands. 9Y-TTJ, a CAL ATR 72-600 op­er­at­ing as BW294, touched down at the Ter­rance B. Lett­some Int’l air­port just af­ter 11am lo­cal time. The air­craft and its crew were greet­ed by a wa­ter can­non salute – tra­di­tion­al­ly giv­en when an air­line be­gins a new route. Tor­to­la is CAL’s 24th des­ti­na­tion and ac­cord­ing to CEO Garvin Med­era, it will not on­ly be a “boost to tourism but al­so ad­di­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties to fos­ter trade and deep­en cul­tur­al ties.”

Madon­na De­bique, one of the pas­sen­gers on­board told Guardian Me­dia she want­ed to be part of his­to­ry, so she booked her tick­et specif­i­cal­ly for to­day’s ser­vice as soon as she heard it be­ing an­nounced. Hav­ing nev­er been on an in­au­gur­al ser­vice be­fore, the re­tiree and avid trav­eller says it won’t be her last. Her next flight? Guade­loupe. De­bique says it’s all about ex­plor­ing and con­nect­ing with oth­er is­lands in the Caribbean.

Na­talio Wheat­ley, Pre­mier of the Vir­gin Is­lands, along with sev­er­al of­fi­cials were on hand to speak with guests and mem­bers of the me­dia. The BVI has been in dis­cus­sions with Caribbean Air­lines since 2019 to be­gin ser­vice to the is­lands. He says it’s a “grat­i­fy­ing feel­ing” to see their vi­sion come to re­al­i­ty. “These things are not sim­ple, it took a lot of work. It took Caribbean Air­lines do­ing its due dili­gence and we are so grate­ful for the con­fi­dence Caribbean Air­lines has shown in the Vir­gin Is­lands prod­uct,” he added. Not­ing the large num­ber of Caribbean per­sons liv­ing and work­ing in the British Vir­gin Is­lands, he told Guardian Me­dia the new route will help to make in­tra-re­gion­al trav­el more ef­fi­cient and short­en the jour­ney times.

With four week­ly flights, Caribbean Air­lines will pro­vide 540 seats week­ly, in and out of the des­ti­na­tion with four week­ly flights.