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.
We should have seen this coming. After they got all they could get from the GERS and the VI Government, they packed up and left. Just another user of the Virgin Islands. Might as well call it a mini Hovensa.
once again….
And HOW MUCH did they take us for in EDA, GERS and other GVI freebies????? Oh well, there’s always more takers than givers around here.
Since Mike Ritzi and Gary Foss refuse to answer questions. Here is an answer to some of them.
This move will affect more than 60 employees jobs that will be moving to San Juan. The employees will be given the option to leave St.Croix or they will lose their jobs. Also they have received a substantial loan and change to their interest rate within the last 2 months by GERS as posted on here. What kind of person accepts this knowing that his company is leaving. Also how could GERS approve these things knowing that the plan was for Seaborne to move. AS you can see by all of this Gary Foss does not care about his Cruzan Employees only about being a hero in San Juan. Hope he and his Fiancee enjoy Puerto Rico…. Good Riddens to him. But feel really bad for the Seaborne employees that have dedicated themselves to Seaborne only to be treated as unimportant.
One other issue is these 60+ employees have families. Spanish is spoken in all public schools and English is taught as a second language. What will these families do with their school age children that don’t speak Spanish? Oh yes and Merry Christmas From Scrooge AKA Gary Foss.
I guess it’s a good thing Port Authority held their ground and not wave the money Seaborne owes. Otherwise they would have gotten away with a hell of a steal.
Oh my Lord!!! Good golly Miss Molly!!! !!!WOW!!! Not surprised at this outcome, actually, I’ve been expecting it for quite some time now…
This is oh so funny as all heck, to the point of tears… Let’s give a round of applause to the lame duck leadership of the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands…
So much for being a member of the St.Croix Chamber of Commerce… Hmmmmmm, I wonder, how much does a membership in that group go for these days?!? ‘Cause quite frankly from the looks of it, it’s utterly worthless…
The EDA and the GERS are just a couple of the biggest revolving doors in the U.S.V.I.’s system and when you constantly elect and/or allow career criminals and/or gold-digging, money grabbing opportunists into public office and/or allow them to assume high ranking positions within government, you WILL get these results…
No blood flows through their veins, they all have hearts of pure stone… For how can you sit back knowing that in a moment in time after signing over monies that rightfully belong to hardworking people calling it “an investment in economical develop and future of the U.S.V.I.” that not only will go for naught, but at the same time several of your countrymen will lose their jobs in the end, live, walk and talk with a clear conscience amongst them?!?
Mmm, mmm, mmm(shakes my head)…
Ritzi and Foss, know they’ve done wrong, hence they refuse to answer questions and their phones… How long U.S.V.I., how long?!?
Hooks up my home theatre system to a couple louder speaker and plays the following line from Nat King Cole’s – The Christmas Song, “Merry Christmas to you…”
Gee maybe there should be an investigation into corruption between Gary Foss (Seaborne) and the VI Government.
LOL no corruption here. Just plain old stupid people in government. Let’s face it, the only thing that Seaborne owes the VI is some loan payments. Shame on our neighboring government in PR, but then again we Diageo was the same thing. Let this be a lesson to the Governor. Next time we steal a deal, how about getting hundreds of jobs not 40-50 and how about getting a majority on the board, not a debt collector aka GERS. Gary Foss played this one out like the real ruthless, cheating business man he is lol. Ritzi I’m sure is just a PR pawn. But hey what’s in the dark will all come out to light soon enough.
I’ve “enjoyed” all the comments and conspiracy theories here… Seaborne, just like Hovensa, Diageo, etc., are private companies which will make decisions based on what is best for them and NOT what is best for their host… I for one am not surprised about this at all… As soon as American Eagle pulled out and Seaborne started taking over and talking about expanding their service, the writing was on the wall… They are just moving their headquarters to an airport that hosts more airlines and where, even some of them, have satellite offices… They are also getting a 16 million dollar injection in incentives from PR’s government… and last, but not least, they want to become the Caribbean’s connection for the major carriers… It is sad news for the VIs, who are not only set to lose existing jobs, it will lose a lot of new jobs… What comes around, do goes around… PR lost American Eagle’s hub and lots of jobs, now, they will become Seaborne’s hub… It is that simple…
this administration are crooks, not administrators. AND they have no idea what the term DUE DILIGENCE even means. The only DUE is what’s DUE to them. Period. Revolting.
Conspiracy theorists abound in the USVI, eh? Thank you Rowdy802 for adding some business sense to the comments. Businesses relocate their operations to greener pastures all the time (China anyone?). Great for the business, not so good for the community being left behind. Previous news reports indicate that seaborne airlines hadn’t made any payments on their $4 million dollar GERS loan since March of this year and were in the process of trying to negotiating new terms with the GERS. Saving the ship rather than continuing on a death spiral was the best choice IMO. I would bet that the high cost of doing business here also figured in their decision to move their HQ to San Juan PR.
Good for business huh? Lol that’s subject to personal opinion. You guys act like no business can strive in the Virgin Islands. I mean if relocating is good for business then why not relocate to tax free haven Monaco of all places lol. Here’s the double standard…it’s all good and fine until it hits home it’s as simple as that. If it doesn’t affect you and you can get past it then hooray good news and life goes on. No loyalty in business! Not to your senior employees, not to your community not to anyone. Only the profit margins and pockets remain the true beneficiary. Proven fact.
Huh… Nowhere I said that business can’t strive in the Virgin Islands… Read again, they relocated to take over the hole left by American Eagle when they pulled out of PR… But, since you bring it up, it is FACT that operating costs in the VIs are higher and the local economy is in dire straits without much being done by the government… By the way, I always go to and support the local business in STX…
Help me understand why the headquarters of Seaborne HAS to move to Puerto Rico to be MORE profitable than on St. Croix? The airline’s headquarters location has very little impact on profits in my opinion. Usually airlines move their headquarters based on FAA Fizdos to help get easy approvals. But the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico fall under the same fizdo. A good comparison would be southwest and JetBlue. Ones located in TX and the other in NY. I’m sure you’re aware of the day and night comparison for cost of living and operations. So why doesn’t JetBlue relocate their HQ to a cheaper state?