Kralendijk- The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) said that the three islands Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba together have seen more flight movements in the second quarter of 2017. A closer look reveals that both Bonaire and St. Eustatius received more flights, while there was a decrease in Saba.

Airplanes flew 5,190 times from and to the Caribbean Netherlands in the second quarter. Compared to the second quarter of 2016 this is an increase of 5.7 percent. Bonaire and St. Eustatius saw an increase of 7.6 percent and 11.7 percent respectively. On Saba the number of flight movements decreased by 11.7 percent.

Bonaire, not surprisingly, is the busiest airport of the Caribbean Netherlands with 2,980 flight movements. St. Eustatius ranks second with 1,520 movements in the second quarter and Saba is the smallest with 680 flight movements.

Decrease in passengers from and to Bonaire
The number of flight movements increased, but CBS figures also show that the number of passengers which flew from and to the Caribbean Netherlands fell by 4.9 percent in the second quarter.

On Bonaire the number of arriving and departing passengers declined by 7.1 percent and on Saba by 1.1 percent. On St. Eustatius the number of passengers handled rose by 5.2 percent.

A total of 76.6 thousand passengers flew from and to Bonaire in the second quarter. The direct origin or destination was Curaçao for most passengers (50 percent). Amsterdam ranks second with 24 percent.

The value of goods imported by air from and to the Caribbean Netherlands was 6.5 million US dollars in the second quarter. Compared to a year earlier this is an increase of nearly 39 percent.