DAE to work
with Winair?
PHILIPSBURG--As part of its strategy for further growth, the Curaçao-based airline Dutch Antilles Express (DAE) chose for St. Maarten and is on the verge of entering a far-reaching cooperation agreement with Winair.
That is notable, considering the existing relations between Winair and Insel Air, DAE’s competitor. “I don’t have the feeling they are really cooperating with each other,” said DAE-director Floris van Pallandt.
He doesn’t want to go into full details about the upcoming changes, despite the fact that the plans are laid down in a declaration of intent.
Also Roland Duncan (NA), as the minister who represents the shareholder of the government-owned company, is non-committal. “There are possibilities. We are negotiating,” said the minister.
“Winair can survive, but the existing routes need to be explored and expanded. We can grow and give better service with bigger airplanes. DAE is willing to cooperate. The plan was presented to the Council of Ministers,” said Duncan. He expects to get down to business within two weeks.
“Winair is in business for 46 years. Every time the company is nearly dead, it comes back to life.”
DAE’s predecessor BonairExel had already tried to take over Winair three years ago, when the latter was in a state of bankruptcy. On behalf of the Island and Central Governments, a committee was established to privatise Winair.
The then Exel-top executive Harm Prins was busy with the take-over purchase, which never actually took place. It may have been due to the demise of the Exel aviation group. Winair was never privatised after that.
At that time, Bonaire Participation Company BPM (Niek Sandmann) made a down of approximately 1.4 million guilders for the shares. Because the sale was not completed, BPM had the shares attached and instituted a lawsuit against Winair, which is still ongoing.
If the cooperation with DAE takes place, the lawsuit will be dropped and reprieve will be granted. “We will also continue with the privatisation of Winair,” guaranteed Duncan.
He says that he has talked with several investors about this, but he couldn’t give any names yet. “We will have to discuss this within government first.”
He emphasised though that DAE (BPM/Sandmann) is not one of them. “We are only talking about cooperation with DAE. BPM will get its money back.”
The cooperation between DAE and Winair is definitely not just for the handling of flights –like Winair does now for Insel Air on St. Maarten – and the putting in of an aircraft in emergency cases, like the Twin Otter of Winair that is performing flights between the ABC islands for Insel Air at this moment.
It’s almost certain that Winair is going to take care of the flight handling for DAE, instead of Arrindell Aviation Services, which is currently doing it.
DAE looks for connecting to and increasing the routes on the Windward Islands. Van Pallandt confirms that the cooperation is going to focus on the existing routes and the development of new ones.
“Everything is on the table. The exact form of cooperation can be interpreted in different ways. I will say more, once we are really going to fly,” said Van Pallandt.
Winair has a small fleet of propeller aircrafts and uses these to fly to Saba, St. Eustatius, Anguilla, St. Barths, St. Kitts, Nevis and Tortola. DAE is currently flying once every day to St. Maarten.
Winair being a government company is no problem for the director of DAE. “It’s just business. A flying route must be feasible with financial accountability to the shareholder. Whether this shareholder is the government like in Winair’s case, or completely private like DAE, the content remains the same.”
