Corporate2000 - Air St. Thomas buyer not affairs Airline Tickets Anymore

Air St. Thomas buyer Paul Wikander fabricated his final appointed flight endure week, catastrophe the airline's 35 years of operation in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Piloting a nine-seat Cessna 402, Wikander flew Wednesday afternoon from Fajardo, Puerto Rico, affecting down at King Airport on St. Thomas. He was greeted by friends, ancestors and business associates.
Wikander and his wife, aggregation carnality admiral Margaret, retired from the ancestors business and plan to advertise it. Air St. Thomas is the longest operating carrier based in the territory, he said.
"It's the hardest accommodation I've anytime made," Wikander, 65, said. "I adore aerial amid the islands. I've consistently admired aerodynamics back I was a little kid. But I'd like to absorb added time with my family."
Born in Detroit, Mich., Wikander confused to St. Thomas in 1963 "with just $35, my wife and child, and one baby suitcase," he said.
Before affective to the area Wikander served with the U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue in Puerto Rico, and afore that he formed in Civil Air Patrol on the U.S. mainland. On St. Thomas he captivated a array of jobs, some in aviation, afore founding his business.
Wikander launched the airline, which he alleged Virgin Air, in 1970, but because of a barter name altercation with Virgin Atlantic, the airline afflicted its name to Air St. Thomas in the aboriginal 1990s.
The airline grew and began alms circadian appointed flights amid San Juan, Fajardo, Virgin Gorda, St. Barths and the U.S. Virgin Islands, alternating with allotment and bartering service, with its two twin-engine aircraft.
Air St. Thomas chock-full aerial to St. Barths endure year afterwards it was called a allotment of 5 airlines that were "blacklisted" by the French government because of declared aliment violations. Wikander believes the ban is "political" and has accustomed his airline's able assurance almanac of just one accessory abrasion in 35 years.
He credits Margaret with authoritative the business a success: "She's the adventuresomeness of Air St. Thomas," he said.
Now, the brace will accept added time to absorb with their two daughters and three grandchildren.
Paul and Margaret Wikander plan to break active during their retirement, however. They are advancing to accessible a alcazar for concise rentals in the Scott Free adjacency of St. Thomas.