DAE inaugurates jet
flight to St. Maarten
PHILIPSBURG--Airline company Dutch Antilles Express (DAE) will execute its first flight with its new Fokker 100 jet from Curaçao to St. Maarten today, Thursday. This event is an important step in DAE’s business strategy to provide even better connections for the people between the Dutch Antillean islands in the region.
“It’s a step that makes our products and services even more attractive for the customer. It means more seats, shorter flights, better schedules and lower fares,” said DAE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Floris van Pallandt.
Van Pallandt announced an introductory fare of NAf. 200 (including fuel charge) for a return ticket St. Maarten-Curaçao. DAE’s first Fokker jet has arrived and the second aircraft, also a Fokker 100, is expected to arrive in two weeks, after having completed the planned maintenance checks in Brazil.
DAE will execute a special first commercial flight on Thursday for which authorities, businesspeople and Curaçao media have been invited. Joining the flight, which lasts one hour and 20 minutes, will be DAE Director Raymundo Sale and other staff members. St. Maarten authorities, businesspeople and media will be invited for the return flight to Curaçao.
The Fokker jets have a capacity of 100 luxurious leather seats with plenty of legroom. It’s almost business class seating at economy fares. The Fokker 100s were manufactured with exceptional modern technology, especially where it concerns navigation equipment and fuel consumption. As customary, DAE serves a snack and a drink on flights between Curaçao and St. Maarten.
With the introduction of the Fokker 100 aircraft, the itinerary of all DAE routes will be adapted and better departure and arrival times will be introduced, as well better connections with international flights. The Fokker will fly between Curaçao and St. Maarten daily. Departure time from Curaçao will 9:00am and from St. Maarten 11:00am. The ATR propeller aircraft will also be deployed, in addition to the Fokker jet.
There will be two daily flights on days the ATR flies, which is attractive for the business traveller who can fly back and forth between Curaçao and St. Maarten in one day. In addition, DAE will fly six times per week from Curaçao to Valencia, Venezuela. In doing so, DAE gives follow-up to an increasing market demand. Another interesting change in the itinerary is that there will be a daily flight from Curaçao to Bonaire and one from Curaçao to Aruba, at 7:00am and 9:00am.
With the fleet expansion, DAE will create more than 100 additional direct jobs in Curaçao. This excludes the indirect employment that will be created with suppliers such as ground handling companies, airport and others. The airline has received much response as a result of a recruitment campaign that started last month to attract the additional employees.
DAE has a lot more in store for the future. These plans include the move to a new head office in Curaçao and start-up of new routes, mainly in the region. Expansion with additional aircraft is not excluded from the plans.
St Maarten vacation rental
