Caribbean Sun Airlines inaugurated service last week with a DeHavilland Dash 8 flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The airline's initial fleet will consist of de Havilland Dash 8 aircraft with seating capacity for 37 passengers. The airline will provide regular flights from San Juan to St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Tortola and Antigua. The airline is commencing operations with four daily round-trip flights from San Juan to Tortola six days a week.

Caribbean Sun is the sister airline of Caribbean Star, also an inter-island carrier. The two airlines will link together to create seamless travel options for business and vacation travelers in the Caribbean, according to Caribbean Sun Chairman and sole shareholder R. Allen Stanford.

The partnership between the two airlines will provide travelers from the United States with service to destinations in Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Trinidad, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent through Caribbean Star. The two airlines, which will operate as separate entities, have a combined fleet of 12 37- and 50-passenger Dash 8 aircraft. They have options to acquire six more.

Caribbean Sun is negotiating a code share partnership with "a major U.S. carrier that will permit passengers to travel to Eastern Caribbean destinations in a seamless manner," according to Paul J. Moreira, president of Antigua-based Caribbean Star. He declined to identify the airline but did say "it would provide through service to eastern Caribbean destinations either via San Juan or Antigua."