Editing Vieques Air Link (section)

== History ==
Operations began during 1965, with owner [[Osvaldo Gonzalez-Duriex|Osvaldo "Val" Gonzalez-Duriex]] piloting a plane with three passengers from Vieques to [[Humacao, Puerto Rico|Humacao]]. A [[Piper PA-28 Cherokee|Cherokee]] aircraft and another airplane were also acquired later, allowing the airline to serve [[Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport|Isla Verde International Airport]].
[[File:Vieques Air Link BN-2B-27 Islander.jpg|thumb|A Vieques Air Link BN-2B-27 Islander]]
In 1968, Vieques Air Link added a flight to [[St. Croix]] in the [[Virgin Islands]].

In 1980 [[Fajardo Airport]] in [[Fajardo, Puerto Rico|Fajardo]] was built and Vieques Air Link started flights to the new airport immediately. In the 1980s the company increased the frequency of flights to [[San Juan, Puerto Rico|San Juan]], Humacao and Culebra. In 1989, Vieques Air Link lost its entire fleet to [[Hurricane Hugo]]. However, it soon acquired seven [[Britten-Norman]] [[Britten-Norman Islander|Islanders]] and three [[Britten-Norman Trislander|Trislanders]].

In the 1990s VAL got into financial trouble. However, with the Vieques conflict, more and more [[Puerto Rico|Puerto Ricans]] began flying Vieques Air Link every day to go to military camps to protest, and the police also had to fly their personnel and the people arrested in those areas on VAL planes at various times. Others, like political leaders [[Ruben Berrios]] and [[Fernando Martín García|Fernando Martín]], and the 2002 [[Miss Puerto Rico]] [[Carla Tricoli]], who is a Viequense, have had pictures taken by the press aboard VAL planes while flying to Vieques, giving the airline a new wave of unpaid-for promotional attention. In addition, in June 2000, the airline made the cover of [[Islander News]] magazine, under the headline "Vieques Air Link: How To Survive a Hurricane", about the airline's fleet loss of 1989 and how it survived the potentially fatal financial disaster.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BN-Islander-Historians-65-2000-June-Vieques-Air-Link-/400576720598?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5d443baed6 |title=BN Islander Historians 65 2000 June Vieques Air Link &#124; eBay |access-date=March 2, 2015 |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402090727/http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BN-Islander-Historians-65-2000-June-Vieques-Air-Link-/400576720598?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5d443baed6 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2008, VAL added a new route between [[Antonio Rivera Rodríguez Airport]] (TJVQ) in Vieques and the new [[José Aponte de la Torre Airport]] (TJRV) at the former [[Roosevelt Roads Naval Base]] (NRR) in Ceiba, shortening the flight between Vieques and the Puerto Rican mainland to seven or eight minutes in a Britten-Norman Islander (BN2P), or Piper Cherokee (PA-32-260).