Oranjestad, St. Eustatius- Former PLP leader and Island Council member Clyde van Putten feels that St. Eustatius and Saba need to have a seat on Winair’s supervisory board.

Van Putten made his remarks in reaction to the news that he had, as only IC member, voted against a motion on Thursday which was presented by Koos Sneek with certain demands on Winair.

“To be very honest: I feel that what Koos Sneek is doing in regards to Winair is nothing more than a smoke screen for his upcoming election as member of the CDA party”, said Van Putten on Saturday. Van Putten also pointed out that Sneek was also on the CDA list 4 years ago. “And what has Sneek done in the last four years about high ticket prices or Winair’s ‘de facto’ monopoly”? asked Van Putten.

Board

Van Putten said if the island really wanted to do do something about Winair’s priorities and high airfares, the island should -together with Saba- also have a seat on Winair Supervisory Board.

“We as islands have a stake in Winair. Not Holland, but we as islands. I consider Winair our National Airline. We are dependent on Winair. This is one of the reasons I always supported Winair, even in the time of The Netherlands Antilles, when Central Government was unwilling to save Winair from bankruptcy at the time”, according to Van Putten.

Licenses

Van Putten said he was not against, but actually in favor of more competition. “When the PLP was in office, we negotiated with various airlines like Seaborne from Puerto Rico, to provide alternate and better airlift to the island”.

According to Van Putten, he feels that the island should get licenses for carriers to serve the island. The island could then determine who to give the licenses to, like for instance our own Blue Bead Airline, or even a company like EZ Air.

“But the motion tabled by Sneek doesn’t contain any of that. It says a lot about Winair and promotion of their flight between Bonaire and Statia, but nowhere does it state how we would get better airlift of more competition”, said Van Putten.

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