Seaborne Airlines will move its corporate headquarters to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from St. Croix, the airline announced in a press release issued Wednesday. The airline expects to complete the move by March. No change to existing routes or Seaborne operations in the U.S. Virgin Islands is planned, the press release indicated.
Efforts to find out more about the impact on people who are employed at the St. Croix headquarters were unsuccessful.
Mike Ritzi, Seaborne’s director of business development, was listed with only an email address on the press release. He responded to an email that “today is not convenient for telephone calls but feel free to send questions and we will reply.” No reply was received by 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The agreement also calls for rebranding of Seaborne’s San Juan-based operations. Ritzi did not respond with information about what rebranding means.
Seaborne President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Foss did not respond to a message left on his cell phone.
In the press release, Foss said, “There is little that is more important to economic development than global air access.”
Seaborne operates as an American Airlines code share partner in select markets at San Juan and has interline connecting agreements with JetBlue Airways and coming soon with Delta Air Lines.
“This agreement will strengthen Puerto Rico’s ties with the rest of the Caribbean and position Seaborne as being Puerto Rico’s favorite airline for connecting customers from our partner carriers or for customers traveling to or from Puerto Rico to neighboring islands,” Foss said.
The move to San Juan comes as a result of an agreement, under which Puerto Rico will take an equity position in the airline and have two seats on the board of directors of Seaborne’s parent company, Coastal International Airways.
Seaborne Airlines has committed to the creation of 400 jobs in Puerto Rico, with 150 of the positions added in the first quarter of 2014.
Seaborne will also add a number of routes important to Puerto Rico’s tourism and export growth:
– on Dec. 12, the carrier began service from San Juan’s Luis Munoz Marin International Airport to La Romana in the Dominican Republic;
– on Jan. 15, the carrier will add service from San Juan to St. Kitts and Nevis.
– on Feb. 14, Seaborne plans to begin service from San Juan to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic;
– on March 1, new service from San Juan to St. Maarten, Seaborne’s 16th airport, will launch.
These San Juan routes are being serviced by four additional Saab 340B, 34-seat aircraft. Seaborne anticipates having a fleet of 16 Saabs based in Puerto Rico, the statement said.
