, 1949-10-11
The comparison is as follows:

Present rate: one-way St. croix St Thomas $500; new rate $500
St croixSst Thomas Gound-trip) $500; new rate $1,000
St Croix San Juan (one-way) $500; new rate $500
ST Croix San Juan Ground trip $234 40: new rate $27OO
St Croix San Juan Excursion rate) SCI 90; new rate NONE,
It will then cost $l8o more to make a round trip to St, Thomas
and it will cost $3.50 more to make a round trip to San Juan.
Furthermore, we notice that ST. Croix has been singled out for
further disadvantage as compared with ST. Thomas. Between 81. Tho
mas and San Juan you quote a regular round trip fare of $162 90
which is double the one-way fare less 1917; but you also quote q
special Excursion Roundtrip fare of $lA4o. which is double the one
way fare less 20d. ST. Croix has such a sneeial Excursion Round
trip fare at the present tim eat $21oo. This Excursion Roundhip fare
&c 81. crolx has been entirely cancelled as from October 18th. there
oy effectively raising the cost of a Roundtrip from ST. Croix to San
Juan by
$500 or 28Hg
for the people of St. Croix Or for visitors to St Croix.
The people of this island have not been notified of these changes
IN the fares. Up to the present time there has been no announcement
from you in the local papers, and even the hotels don't know of this.
apparently 1T Will be advertised in the same manner as your latest
change OF schedule which appeared in the press a couple of days a-
ter it had become effective.
we do not know your operating expenses, nor what has caused
you to make these drastic increases in the cost of air travel between
the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. However, the trend at present
is toward reduction in air passage costs. Pan American has announced
several substantial reductions in their fares during the past months
Don or passage ana Tor ar cargo Your cost of landing at Alexander
Hamilton Field in St. Croix has not been increased, and you are serv-
ing our island twice daily.
It appears to us that St Croix has been unfairly treated in this
matter, and we should welcome an opportunity to go thoroughly
into this question of fares and service together with YOU With saint
Crolx being dependent entirely on air transportation for it's COM
munlcahon with the outside, and with our islands economy be-
coming increasingly more tied to the tourist trade, an increase in
passage cost OF almost SO% is a matter ofserious concern. and a
matter which we feel should have been discussed with representa-
tves of the islands before promulgating same. ~...
We also notice that your fares between San Juan and Cudad
Trujillo remain unchanged, which is another matter that puzzles us,
and again leads us to the conclusion that the increases in your fares
are not balanced nor fair.
The distance from San Juan to Cuidad TruIllo is about double
the distance from San Juan to ST. Croix. and still the fares are $l9.5
and $500 respectively, which proportion is clearly out of line.
You have a factual monopoly in the air transportation field as
lar a. ST. Crolx is concerned, but we cannot interpret this as a free
license to impose upon us fares that will have a definite adverse eff
feet on our economic life here, Our standard of living and our earn
ing capacity have not increased and your heavy increases in fare
will definitely mean an economic hardship and handicap to the is
land, and we are, therefore, asking you to reconsider this matter with
a view to prevent the new rates from going into effect on October
18th as scheduled.
AS mentioned above we should be glad to go further into the
matter and discuss the pros and cons, and we feel sure you will agree
with us that rate increases ought not to be imposed unless the paying
public had a chance to say it's piece.
We are sending a copy of this letter to the Civil Aeronautis
Board in Washington and to the Air Traffic Conference of America,
Washington.
Yours very truly,
Joseph Alexander
President
THE ST. cRoIx CHAMBER OF COMMERCE