Easy Air Travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands

Air travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands is simple, whether you're coming from the U.S. or Canada.

Several of the major airlines have regularly scheduled flights to St. Thomas and St. Croix.

St. John and Water Island have no airports; you get to them by ferry or water taxi from St. Thomas.

St. Thomas from the air

You have a lot of choices when it comes to flights to the Virgin Islands. You can fly directly into the USVI from your departure city, or pass through San Juan, Puerto Rico, where you'll connect on a small "commuter-sized" plane for the short (around thirty minutes) hop onward to St. Thomas or St. Croix.



Here are the kind of flights you'll find:

  • No stops (direct from your starting point to the USVI)

  • One stop (either through another U.S. city such as Philadelphia, Atlanta, or Miami or through San Juan, Puerto Rico)

  • Two stops (where you'll pass through a U.S. city such as the ones just mentioned, and then through Puerto Rico)



The major airlines currently providing air travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands from North America are:

  • American Airlines

  • Continental Airlines

  • Delta Airlines

  • United Airlines

  • U.S. Airways

American Airlines and U.S. Airways offer direct, nonstop air travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands as well as flights connecting through San Juan.

Continental, Delta, and United flights from the U.S. all connect through San Juan.

For information on flight prices from various North American cities, click here.

To learn how to get the best deals on cheap flights to the Virgin Islands, go to the Cheap Flights page here.


Examples of flight times to the U.S. Virgin Islands from various North American cities:

Departure City Approximate flight time
Atlanta 3.5 hours
Chicago 5 hours
Dallas 5.5 hours
Los Angeles 9 hours
Miami 2.5 hours
Montreal 6.5 hours
New York 5 hours
Seattle 11 hours
Toronto 7 hours

Keep in mind that the above times for air travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands are approximate, and are minimums.

Many flights will be longer than the above numbers, due to connections and layover times. There is usually a huge range of flight times available from any given city.

Just to give you an example of how much actual flight times can vary, on a recent search for flights from Atlanta, I found flight times ranging from three-and-a-half hours to as long as fifteen hours!

Do your homework; my suggestion is to look at some of the major travel websites like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz to see what's available.


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Photo from airplane window by gargoylesoftware