Talk:San Juan Aviation
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San Juan Aviation operates a fleet of turbine powered Beech King Air 100's out of the Isla Grande (SIG) Airport at San Juan, and also at the Rafael Hernandez (BQN) Airport in Aguadilla.
SJA serve regular scheduled flights from SIG and BQN to Santo Domingo (SDQ), Punta Cana (PUJ), and La Romana (LRN) in the Dominican Republic, and charter flights to most points in the Caribbean.
The Company emphasizes on fast, reliable personalized service, avoiding crowded, large airports.
Video footage about this company can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5--EhRQLU_8
San Juan Aviation Was founded in 2001 by Capt. Iván Figueroa with the purpose of serving primarily VIP executive flights, Air Ambulance, and Low cost, efficient passenger operations to Dominincan Republic.
"SJA" had a rocky start. It began operations with a King Air 100 (N288RA)on September, 2001, and like the rest of the airlines, had to stay grounded until the FAA "re-opened" the national skies. Due to this waiting, SJA could not start formally flight operations until November 2nd, 2001, date in which started VIP flights.
During the first year, the airline managed to stay afloat, effectively assesing a niche of VIP recurring customers, and achieved success on general charter sales.
Early in 2002, the airline operations really took-off, and was decided to add a second King Air 100, an A-100 (N208SR). Also was decided to upgrade operations to Scheduled Commuter Air Carrier, and start passenger operations service to Santo Domingo, and Punta Cana.
By May, 2004, Company was issued Scheduled Commuter Status, and IATA two-letter code "JI". During this time, SJA remained serving VIP flights, added an air ambulance contract, and increased it's flight operations. The company stressed on full vacation packages to Punta Cana, and had an aggressive TV, and printed campaign to attract customers, many of which were frequent travellers.
By May, 2005, the airline was serving 16 flight legs per day from Isla Grande, San Juan, and Aguadilla to Santo Domingo, La Romana and Punta Cana, plus Deportations/Immigrations daily flight contract, VIP flights, and Air Ambulance operations.
The airline stressed on low cost, elegant-on time service, avoiding busy airports which was very attractive to wholesalers and customers. By summer, 2004, operations in Aguadilla were so successful that consistently out numbered PANAM Clipper Connection's passenger movement to same destinations.
San Juan Aviation was the first airline in decades to offer international scheduled operations to and from Isla Grande Airport, and oppened the door for airlines such as Air Santo Domingo to enter the market and compete, being SJA, and ASD the only two scheduled carriers serving International destinations, particularly into Dominican Republic, and Vieques Air Link serving Scheduled domestic destinations as the only other Scheduled Air Carrier serving Isla Grande Airport.
By mid-2004, it was obvious that the two planes and the five pilots the airline was using were quickly running short, so it was decided to venture into upgrading the fleet to larger airplanes. A choice was made to lease-to-purchase three Saab 340's being sold out by Northwest, and stationed at Nashville.
Shortly after negotiations started, due to global economy, jet fuel prices started soaring dramatically, and general operating costs started to rise. This made management re-consider it's position and was decided to post-pone the equipment upgrade.
By late 2004, N208SR was involved on an incident on ground. The aircraft hit a runway sign, and was partially destroyed. Although the Company was "lucky" that the aircraft was not on flight duty, and there was no-one on board except the pilot, who was taxiing the aircraft when it happened, the incident effectively slashed the fleet in 50%, making it very difficult for the other aircraft to deliver service effectively.
As a result, the airline's fitness degraded, and was later decided to resign the Commuter status, which was subsequently revoked, and flight operations-personnel were reduced significantly in order to be able to maintain quality in service and keep the business operating.
The airline continued operations through the rest of the year, serving all it's contracts, until in February, 2005 an offer was made to adquire the airline, which was eventually sold and re-named to EC-AIR.