Kralendijk- Well-informed sources indicate that earlier today Insel Air CEO, Albert Kluyver, has sent in his letter of resignation to the shareholders of the company. Other media reports mentioned that the Government of Curaçao had decided to send home the entire Insel management team, but the BES-reporter has not been able to confirm that information.

It is a fact though that government is dismayed about the complete meltdown of Insel’s flight operations, after aviation authorities of Aruba decided to ground various of the company’s aircraft. The action of Aruban aviation authorities followed on various recent incidents involving the company’s MD82/83 aircraft which cast doubts on the technical state of the aircraft involved. The near-complete disruption of normal operations came within 24 hours of the government signing a comprehensive agreement with Insel Air shareholders for an emergency loan to keep the company afloat. On Saturday none of the international flights of Insel departed. Although the flight schedule is slowly returning to more or less normal, flights to destinations like Paramaribo and Georgetown have been cancelled for as much as 5 days in a row. The repeated cancellation of flights on certain routes has led to unrest and even violence among desperate passengers at Hato airport.

In a press conference this afternoon, the newly appointed interim director Filiatreaut said that gaining back the confidence of passengers was his first task. At the same time he wants to give employees of the embattled carrier a renewed feeling of pride for working at the airline. According to the new management team, a lot of analysis will now have to take place to know what exactly the facts are, and how the company can best be restructured.

The situation at the local carrier at present seems to be chaotic at best. A lot of conflicting information about the exact situation at the airline and its management team was circulating in early evening hours.

The BES-Reporter will update readers with details the developing story as they unfold.