Insel Air and SLM have received licences to fly the St. Maarten-Curaçao route with an MD-82 airplane for three months, while Insel Air is in the process of having its own MD-82 airplane certified. Minister Gijsbertha stated that Insel Air had requested to operate on the Curaçao-St. Maarten route together with SLM.

“This logically also implies that SLM has to receive a licence in order for the company to carry out the scheduled flights on behalf of Insel Air,” Gijsbertha said. Winair also has expressed its desire to fly the same route with Insel Air and SLM, according to the Minister.

DAE announced in a press release on Friday that the routes within the Netherlands Antilles hadn’t been profitable and if the Minister allowed Suriname Airway SLM to fly the same routes, it would create overcapacity and they would become less profitable.

DAE issued an ultimatum to the Minister at 4:00pm Friday and asked the Minister to clarify his plan of granting a licence to another company to fly between Curaçao and St. Maarten. As DAE said it hadn’t heard anything from the Minister, it decided to stop operations on the Curaçao-St. Maarten route.

Gijsbertha told The Daily Herald yesterday that he wouldn’t comment on DAE’s press release. “I owe responsibility to Parliament and the Antillean public,” he said. “I won’t be pressured or blackmailed by anyone.”

Gijsbertha said it was DAE’s own responsibility to decide whether it would stop its flights to and from St. Maarten. “They try to hold me as Minister responsible for their decision,” he said. “The Government Transition Accord 2006-2007 states that an open sky policy will be maintained, including Government support to all initiatives for more ‘home-based’ carriers in the Netherlands Antilles.”

When DAE started, the company was granted a permit while Dutch Caribbean Airlines (DCA) already existed. “Now that DAE is flying they want me to close the market for them and give them a monopolistic position,” Gijsbertha said.

He explained that as a “home-based carrier,” Insel Air had the right to receive a licence to fly all Antillean routes and to other countries with which Government has an agreement. He believes Insel Air has the potential to grow and provide jobs to those who were left unemployed when DCA went bankrupt in 2004.

Gijsbertha said he had based his decision on granting Insel Air and SLM licences because the two companies had an agreement on cooperation since June 1. He also considered that Insel Air’s MD-82 airplane would be certified in October, and said Winair had expressed willingness also to operate the Curaçao-St. Maarten route with Insel Air and SLM.

The fact that Insel Air will use former DCA pilots and cabin personnel who have vast experience with MD-82 type airplanes also weighed in his decision.

Furthermore, Gijsbertha said the Insel Air flights would fill in the gap left when DCA closed its doors. He said the Post Office had complained to Government about insufficient capacity and reliable mail transport to St. Maarten and the region, which was making its operations more costly.

Source: The Daily Herald
www.thedailyherald.com