Sept. 13, 2001 – The U.S. Postal Service plans to start moving first-class, priority and express mail in and out of the Virgin Islands on Friday using chartered airplanes, Postmaster Louis A. Jackson said Thursday night in a turn-around from a status report issued just hours earlier.
The plan covers mail between St. Thomas and St. Croix, mail between those islands and Puerto Rico, and mail to and from the mainland.
Jackson said he expected the first plane would leave St. Thomas at 4:30 a.m. Friday.
Mail service between St. Thomas and St. Croix, between the territory and Puerto Rico, and between the islands and mainland came to a standstill Tuesday when the Federal Aviation Administration closed the nation's airports following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. The FAA then announced a ban on transporting first-class mail and packages on commercial flights once they resumed.
On Thursday afternoon, Jackson said the Postal Service would charter a barge to transport mail from St. Thomas to St. Croix and on to Fajardo, P.R., and then back. He commented then that he could not say when the ban on commercial flights carrying mail would be lifted. He announced the new plan around 8:30 p.m.
First-class mail from the mainland that had arrived in Puerto Rico before the airport shut down Tuesday should reach the territory Friday, Jackson said, and other shipments will follow.
Mail between St. Thomas and St. John was not affected by the federal actions because it regularly goes via barge. And fourth-class mail, which includes packages, was not affected by the FAA mandate because it is transported to and from the territory by ship.
Businesses and individuals in the territory had expressed concern in the last two days about problems that would arise if they were not able to receive or dispatch mail. The resumption of mail service into and out of the territory Friday is expected to put an end to those concerns.
