I was browsing around on the internet, and I came across this article:

http://www.stlucia.gov.lc/pr2004/august/continental_airlines_considers_coming_to_st_lucia.htm

Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - International carrier, Continental Airlines has expressed interest in beginning a new scheduled service to St. Lucia. Minister of Tourism, Hon. Philip J. Pierre, Director of Tourism, Hilary Modeste and St. Lucia Tourist Board (SLTB) Regional Marketing Manager, Lorraine St. Jules met with top officials of Continental in Newark, NJ last week, to discuss the possibility of the new flight.

That's part of it; click on the link to read the entire article. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if CO started 73G service between EWR-UVF. It would fit right in with the rest of their Caribbean network. Has anyone at CO heard anything about this service? According to the article, CO will have concrete flight plans set up in six weeks time.

[Edited 2004-08-24 19:54:44]

Not surprising. CO did EWR-UVF charters (on Sat.) for Sandals Resorts last winter,

I am surprised that St. Lucia could accomodate jet service. When I was there in march 90% of the traffic was ATR's and Dash 8's. There was a G-IV and it looked huge on that field. Out of curiosity how long is the runway?

LatinAviation is right--this is not terribly surprising. I saw a CO charter heading to EWR when I was at UVF in the fall of 2002, and CO had ticket counters there already, so scheduled service does not seem unrealistic.

Jtamu97, there are two different airports in St. Lucia. You may be thinking of Vigie (SLU), in the north near Castries, which is very small and can accommodate only turboprops. Hewanorra (UVF), in the south, has a long runway that can accommodate widebodies (VS 747s and BA 777s are regular visitors).

FoxBravo is right,I flew into UVF with AA on a 727-200 some years go,and flew out of SLU with AA Eagle to SJU on and ATR-72.

FoxBravo

You are incorrect. SLU or Vigie as it is known can accommodate jets. When I was there in 2000 an Amerijet B727 landed every day at SLU.

I have a photo somewhere of it on finals, taken from the nearby Sandals resort. It may have something to do with Customs not being able to handle the number of passengers, not sure though. Are there any locals who can confirm this?

Fox Bravo,
Thanks, that makes sense. We were on a cruise ship and I was watching the planes come and go most of the day. Wish I would have known there was another airport.

Thanks,
J

The approach into SLU is quite interesting. The runway is right at the edge of the waters, where cruise ships enters and exits the harbour. So at times, aircraft may have to either go around or climb over the ship to land.

The main reason why jets don't go into SLU is because of the small ramp size. Also, there is a hill infront of the airport, so after takeoff, aircrafts will have to make a sharp left turn out.

View Large View Medium Photo © Josh Akbar

View Large View Medium Photo © Josh Akbar

Have any employees at CO heard anything about the possibility of this new service? Come on, Iahcsr, I'm sure you've heard something...

On a side note, CO also used to do (or still does?) charters from EWR-Providenciales (probably also for Sandals). Are they looking into scheduled service for that as well?

[Edited 2004-08-24 22:25:50]

BigOrange, when I said it "can accommodate only turboprops," I meant for regular passenger service--whether that is due to the runway length or the size of the ramp or terminal, I don't know. But obviously jet aircraft are physically capable of landing at Vigie, since Jtamu97's post I was replying to mentioned a G-IV there.

Good news for St.Lucia! I am happy the market is so attractive to so many different carriers! Can't wait to see that new flight take to the air!!

I worked at both UVF (5 yrs with AA) and SLU (2 yrs for Eagle) till 12/2000. The Amerijet saga had been ongoing for a while.

In terms of commercial jet traffic at SLU, BWIA operated a daily MD80 flt to MIA from there, they eventually stopped that service and introduced the Bwee Express ( Dash 8's ) as a feeder to BGI to connect that same flight.

Amerijet had been fighting the authorities for a while because they were being pressed to move their service to UVF, I believe that that the civil aviation authorities prevailed in that matter so their B727 service to SLU stopped.

As a passenger on a few MD80 flights into SLU ( after seeing so many of them use up all the runway to take off and land...) my heart almost jumped out of my chest every time.. But whoa! What a rush!

"Come on, Iahcsr, I'm sure you've heard something..."

Odd as it might seem, I haven't a clue about this or any other new service CO might have in mind. New routes and the like are thought up/planned out by the nice folks down at 1600 Smith St. in downtown Houston. I however, am many miles north of CO's HQ. and only know what my coworkers around me talk/gossip about. New flight service is rarely a topic of conversation in Gordon's Galley.

B757lvr, I had no idea that BWIA used to fly MD-80s into SLU. Wow, that must have been exciting! Anyway, I stand corrected.

Yeh Fox, it was always an awesome sight!! I have a few amateur pics I will try to see if I can get them online.