Philipsburg- Many passengers were unpleasantly surprised with the news that Insel Air would not be executing any flights between Wednesday November 14 and Friday November 16, 2018.

The cancellation of all flights was caused by the fact that urgent maintenance was necessary on the single operational aircraft of the airline, a Fokker-50.

The company has been forced to execute an engine swap between the operational Fokker-50 and the Fokker-50 which, for some time now, has been stranded at Princess Juliana International Airport, also because of a technical problem in one of the engines.

By swapping one engine from the stranded airplane to the operational one, Insel hopes to be able continue its operation between Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba and Sint Maarten.

Insel Air through social media said they profusely regretted the cancellation of many flights, but that safety would always be priority number one for the carrier. Insel also said that they would try to transport as many passengers by means of chartered aircraft from other operators.

Transportation between ABC islands and Sint Maarten problematic
The situation with the transportation of passengers between the ABC-islands and Sint Maarten seems to be the most dire one. Most of Winair’s flights are fully booked and there are no other operators who can easily executed the flight on behalf of Insel Air. The fact that the airline functions on bankruptcy protection with little available cash flow does not help the situation.

Insel said they hoped to resume their flights back on Saturday.

The carrier will have to prove by December 4th that it has found an investor in order to continue their operation.