Philipsburg — With the recent publications in the online media about Winair regarding problems with PAWA and CN Express and a new wetlease agreement with Haiti-based Sunrise Airways, StMaartenNews.com contacted CEO Michael D. Cleaver for an update on Winair’s situation post-Irma and for a progress report on the latest developments.
In a frank phone conversation, Cleaver explained that Winair has gone from doing 65 flights per day down to 13 to 17 flights a day. Some flights are full, but the impact of hurricanes Irma and Maria are resulting in huge financial shortfalls for the company.
The company had to repair its hangar and until passenger numbers coming off of such airlines like KLM and Air France increases, the CEO and President of Winair predicts that it will be 12 to 18 months before the airline company can experience a positive financial recovery.
An official press release from the airline company, issued as a result of the queries from stmaartennews.com to the company’s CEO via email, stated that in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria Winair’s facilities were completely destroyed, causing the need for a new facility to be set up to enable the company to firstly serve its customers by opening a new sales and reservations office. The new office is conveniently located on the Pond Fill road in Philipsburg.
In addition, Winair has leased the second floor of this building to enable their Accounting and HR departments a venue from which to operate out of. “Customer and vendors reception has truly been positive” the press quoted Mr. M.D. Cleaver as stating.
To continue transparency and inform the traveling public, Winair announced in the aforementioned press release its discontinuance of its twice weekly services to Curacao through the ACMI wetlease agreement with their partner PAWA Dominicana. “Our relationship with PAWA Dominicana remains strong and we look forward to exploring other various opportunities in the aviation industry in collaboration with PAWA in the future.” the press release quoted Mr. M.D. Cleaver, CEO & President of Winair as saying.
Winair will continue twice weekly service PAP-SXM-PAP each Wednesday and Saturday on the Haiti-St. Maarten route utilizing a state-of-the-art AirBus A320 with a passenger capacity of 138 economy seats and 12 business class seats. With this
equipment enhancement Winair will be offering the latest technology to transport our customers to and from Port au Prince. “This all important market of Haiti is often overlooked and we are very proud to continue to serve this market in partnership with Sunrise Airways.” stated Mr. M.D. Cleaver, CEO &
President of Winair. Sunrise Airways is a Haiti-based airline company that started in 2010 offering commercial and charter flights.
The past weeks, surprisingly, reports started coming out of Bonaire about a so-called ‘Caribbean Netherlands Express’, or CN Express, that would be offering commercial flights between Bonaire and St. Eustatius with connections to Saba. Winair was to be the operator of this CN express service. Quickly afterwards reports were published that the plans had hit a snag and delays would be expected with the latest news report stating that Winair had pulled out of the planned operations.
In the official press release issued today by Winair, the company stated that “Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of Winair and our partners in The Hague, we were unable to achieve a workable plan to accommodate and facilitate the CN Express operation. Winair’s current operational and financial situation post Irma/Maria preclude Winair from avoidable risks at this time.”
Reliable experts in this field close to StMaartenNews.com know for a fact that an operation of the nature requires significant financial guarantees that obviously the Dutch government are not prepared to commit on behalf of the BES-islands despite the urgent need for airlift between these islands given the present state of the SXM Airport.
In the phone conversation with StMaartenNews.com, Cleaver talked about the lack of hotel inventory with big hotels such as Maho and Dawn Beach closed for renovation despite their working feverishly to rebuild their properties. With this in mind, it is obvious to StMaartenNews.com that Winair is in no position to take any kind of financial risks at the moment.
It is clear that the rebuilding process will take some time. Guesthouses and vacation villas that serve the smaller island markets like Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts and Nevis, are doing the best they can to accommodate the guests Winair fly in to the island. But as Cleaver rightfully points out, “the mass tourism traffic is simply not there.”
Cleaver also said and we quote, “There is no lack of effort on the part of the St. Maarten people. They are good hard working resilient people and everyone is working hard to rebuild the island.”
“On behalf of Winair and all its team members in St. Maarten and the surrounding islands we serve, we thank the customers for their business and confidence in Winair, and we look forward to serving you in the future.” the company’s press release concluded.
All Winair flights can be booked online at www.winair.nl.
