BVI 2020 Day 12 Flights to Toronto

By 10:30, we were in the cab from Road Town to the airport.

We were there in plenty of time, as none of the check in desks were even open.

As mentioned before, we chartered a small plane from Island Birds.
At the counter, we were greeted by this cute young lady, who took our tickets, baggage, and took us through security.

Persons using local airports to travel internationally will now have to pay $50 in fees to the Government of the Virgin Islands.

A breakdown of this fee — which largely has not sat well with residents — shows that persons will be required to pay $15 on departure tax, $5 on security tax, and $30 on what the BVI Airports Authority is describing as an Airport Development Fee (ADF).

In the departure lounge I saw:

After a short wait, we went out to the 8 seater plane, where our luggage was being loaded in the back of the cabin.  We had to put our carry on luggage in special compartments located in the wing behind the engines.

Then this same cute young (maybe 35 year old) woman takes the controls of the plane.
She is our pilot; Island Birds is a one woman operation in the BVIs!

She informed us that she wanted the men in the front of the airplane for weight distribution.
Don got to sit in the seat beside her!

That's Don's shoulder

Are you nervous Rita?

The flight was awesome.
Could see the gauges on the airplane.

Pilot Jamie and Co-Pilot Don

Max altitude was 4500 ft
Max speed was 180 knots
Avg speed was 133 knots
Distance travelled ~90 miles

Took off at 11:39 and landed at 12:18

It was kewl to see our pilot Jamie steer the plane between the clouds.
No autopilot here!

We were whisked off the tarmac in a limo.
What a way to travel!

Back to the mundane lineups for a commercial WestJet flight to Toronto (16:00 flight).

That's Maho Beach

Super Yacht Maltese Falcon

Flight home was uneventful, landing a little after 8pm local time.

There was snow on the ground and the temperature was -5 degrees C.

Quick limo ride home to our Shadow