I recently wrote about my experience at St. Barts Airport (SBH), which has to be one of the coolest airports in the world for aviation geeks. While the most common way to travel to and from St. Barts is to fly with Winair through Sint Maarten (SXM), we decided to mix things up on our…
Continue reading: Flying With Tradewind Aviation, The Comfy Pilatus PC-12 “Airline”
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
So, seems like maybe these guys did better than Winair. Good to know of more competitors, especially if one lets you down.
Lana’i Air also flies (or flew) the PC-12 between HNL and Lana’i, mostly for guests of the Four Seasons properties there. I got lucky with a complimentary round trip flight back during COVID. The FS had a special deal for Hawaii residents that included a highly discounted rate and complimentary flights. They flew out of a private terminal, which was cool. The interior was more luxurious than what I see in the pics of above (seats had much more padding). Big difference from the Cessna Caravan we flew the second time we went to the FS. LOL.
Lanai is better than the Caribbean . Oahu is better than Jamaica . Anywhere is better than Cuba .
WinAir would be smooth , if there were 63 prospective passengers at the counter . The aircraft has merely 13 seats , duh .
50 were "left behind" at WinAir , so there were 50 extra passengers , for merely 13 seats .
Is there a bathroom? Just curious, it doesn't look like it, though I read online the PC-12 can be configured with one right behind the cockpit.
Lucky, is it comfortable to be in a small prop that long? Or is it really loud, hot, etc? How does it compare to the Winair planes in that respect?
I work with both airlines regularly. TJ is certainly a more premium product. I really wouldn't even compare them despite offering similar services. The Pilatus is a much nicer product too. Totally understand the fear of a single engine (especially over the ocean), but accidents in these types of aircraft are almost always due to pilot error.
LOVE LOVE LOVE Tradewind. We fly them to Virgin Gorda. Great team on the phone, at the airport and in the air! Wish they flew all year!!
They actually fly in Florida - having opened up the SE sector a year ago. Palm Beach. Fort Lauderdale. Key West etc are well served by them.
The PJ-12 is extremely comfortable; much more so than the Winair planes. PJ-12s are a very common private 'jet' option for intra-Europe flights like London to St Tropez, etc. for the well-to-do. It's on the more economical end of that spectrum, but no one would ever take a Twin Otter over a PJ-12. Pilatus is a really loved brand in the segment.
@ LP -- No bathroom onboard. I'll add that to the post since I realize it might not be obvious, thanks.
@ mkleiderman -- Tradewind does indeed have interline agreements with American, British Airways, JetBlue, and United:
https://www.flytradewind.com/interline-partners/
I haven't found pricing to generally be too competitive compared to booking separately (at least for us value maximizers), so it's not something I had considered when I booked.
@ Adam -- As noted by Mike, the PC-12 is generally a pleasure to fly. It's pretty quiet, has a comfortable, pressurized cabin, etc., and it operates much longer flights than this. It's a much more comfortable cabin environment than the Twin Otter (which feels a bit more like riding a bus).