BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) -- Regional airline Caribbean Star plans to start new service from Puerto Rico to other Caribbean islands to provide better connection to the United States, the chief executive said.

The Antigua-based airline said its Caribbean Star Inc is to open at San Juan's main international airport on July 1, Paul Moreira, Caribbean Star's chief executive, said in a telephone interview Saturday.

"Our focus now is to bring more tourists to the Caribbean as opposed to simply taking Caribbean nationals outside the region," he said.

From Puerto Rico, the airline is to offer flights to Antigua, St Maarten, Dominican Republic, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Tortola, Trinidad, Grenada and Guyana. Its main hubs would be in Barbados and Antigua.

Moreira said the airline plans to employ about 50 people in San Juan and has leased two Dash-8 planes for the expansion and plans to lease two more later this year.

Caribbean Star has established agreements with US carriers to bring passengers from the United States into San Juan because US authorities have restricted how many American cities the airline can serve, Moreira said. He did not identify the airlines with which the company has agreements.

The main airline that serves Puerto Rico is Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines, and its American Eagle subsidiary is often the only airline that residents in the US territory can take to reach other Caribbean islands.

Caribbean Star, in its second year of operations, serves 11 destinations in the region.

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