Winair director Hans van de Velde confirms reports from local media to Luchtvaartnieuws.nl. He says he was unpleasantly surprised by the decision. “There are treaties on the freedom of transport between the islands, we cannot find any reason not to allow these flights.”
Rights
Winair currently flies to and from Curaçao seven times a week, with an onward flight to Aruba four times and three times to Bonaire. The company has rights to transport passengers between, for example, Aruba and Curaçao, as long as Sint Maarten is included as a destination in the route.
From July 1, Winair wants to fly a total of ten times a week from Sint Maarten to Curaçao, with seven onward connections to Aruba and three to Bonaire. The additional flights must take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
No clear answer
“We have been able to convert the routes within our route network from Sint Maarten in such a way that we can unlock an extra ATR aircraft. We really plan to fly the ATRs ten times a week from July 1, but do not understand the decision of the Curaçao authorities to only give the green light for a period of two weeks. We just can’t get a straight answer. This is strange, since due to the disappearance of JetAir there are suddenly 400 fewer seats per week on the market on the route. We are actually providing a service to those involved by deploying extra capacity on routes that are already well occupied on a daily basis. Given the importance for the economy of Curacao and Sint Maarten, I hope that the governments will reach an agreement quickly,” said Van de Velde.
Winair would also do the Dutch government a great favor with the new plans, because it wants more fast connections between Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius, the so-called BES islands. Flights to Saba and St. Eustatius take place via the hub on St. Maarten.