Caribbean Travel Magazine

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Photo by: Bob Friel

There is no longer American Eagle service from Barbados to Canouan in the Grenadines. However, don't think this means getting to Canouan will now be more difficult. The Raffles Resort Canouan says they will handle all flight connections or tranfers for passsengers flying into and out of Barbados.

The Resort says they have also improved travel on the island -- They now provide their Raffles Jet, a 7-seat luxury aircraft available for charter anywhere in the Caribbean, and as far as Miami.

Flight Concierge Program

Via Barbados and St. Lucia: For all passengers flying into and out of Barbados or St. Lucia, we will handle all flight connections or transfers, to Canouan Island. There is no longer American Eagle service from Barbados to Canouan, and all bookings that have been made on Grenadines Airways (including SVG Airlines, Mustique Airways, or Trans Island Airways) have already been passed along to our Flight Concierge.

Passengers arriving in these points of entry will be greeted by airport staff at the arrivals hall. Once their luggage has been identified, they will be escorted to the in-transit departures areas, where they will board for Canouan. There will be no tickets issued, as this is, technically, a private charter. The flight transfer requires a 50% deposit ($150USD) and the total cost is $300USD net per person. The charge remains the same whether you have one passenger or up to 16. Children under 2 years of age fly free. For larger groups of clients, you may wish to contact our reservations department for charter pricing. We will have access to as many as 17 planes per day through the Grenadines Airways Alliance. This new program will make the process of getting to Raffles Resort more flexible and pleasurable, without the disappointment of missed connections, cancellations, etc.

We will require both flight arrival and departure information into either Barbados or St. Lucia at the time of booking. This service is available to us with all official tour operators working with Raffles Resort Canouan Island.

Via San Juan: American Eagle will continue to operate daily flights into Canouan from San Juan via St. Lucia, and tickets will be booked by operator via normal GDS channels. (This is not a part of our Flight Concierge Program.)

Via Martinique: Clients arriving from Europe through Martinique (FDF) with Air France or Air Caraibes, now can connect to non-stop flights to Canouan Island with Take Airlines (TKL) or with codeshare partner Air Caraibes (TX), through August 31st, 2005.

Take Airlines will fly to CIW via Union Island (Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) as shown in the GDS, with commitment to drop CIW passengers prior to land on Union Island. From October 29, 2005, Take Airlines will fly to CIW on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Based on demand, they will use any of the following planes: 9 seater Caravan 208, 19 seater Dornier DO228, and 30 seater Dornier available this coming Fall.

Via South America: This fall we will be implementing a new flight service for South American clients via Caracas, Venezuela directly to Canouan Island. We're pleased to use the Flight Concierge service procedure described above in transferring these guests to Raffles Resort Canouan Island. The cost per seat from this destination is $500USD round trip, and will operate on a Thursday to Sunday schedule, meeting flight connections from most major cites in South America and several European hubs into Caracas. We will send more information as we move forward with this phase of our program.

Raffles Jet ... Only The Best: Most exciting of all, we are pleased to announce our Raffles Jet, a Cessna Citation II, 7-seat luxury aircraft available for charter anywhere in the Caribbean, and as far as Miami. Call our flight concierge for a personal quote. We look forward to providing you with more details on this unique service very shortly.

IMPORTANT NOTE ... FALL CLOSURE: We will close the resort on an annual basis during the month of September and the first two weeks of October. Specific dates will vary slightly. This year's dates are: September 5, 2005 through October 20, 2005.

Posted online 08/02/05.