Winair’s future
to be discussed
PHILIPSBURG--Winair shareholder representative Minister Roland Duncan will have a meeting with St. Eustatius on the airline’s future on January 19.
Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage, Transport and Telecommunication Minister Maurice Adriaens, Finance Minister Ersilia de Lannooy and State Secretary of Justice for St. Eustatius Ernie Simmons are also planning to be at the scheduled meeting.
Duncan said he believed the future of the company looked positive. The question also will be what is going to happen to the company after 2008. “My idea is to draft a service agreement for the BES islands Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius, and let the Dutch government pay for it,” Duncan stated.
He said St. Eustatius especially had been complaining about the service received from Winair. “It wants a special flight in the morning and at night.”
He said Winair had pointed out that the special flight would cost money, but the island had not been willing to guarantee a certain number of seats. Duncan: “Caribbean Sun flies from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to St. Eustatius and the island guarantees seats on that flight.”
Duncan said Winair was still running after 45 years of existence without any support. He believes that if local governments had supported Winair in the same way it guaranteed seats on foreign airlines, Winair could have been operating Boeing 737 jet planes also.
“But that’s part of our mentality: We have to bring everything from the outside,” Duncan said.
