The Hague- In a letter to Dutch Parliament State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Mona Keijzer, writes that letters for St. Eustatius and Saba, may be shipped through the Postal Services of St. Maarten in order to reach both islands faster than is currently the case.

The letter by Keijzer comes after complaints from former Statia Island Council member Koos Sneek (DP), about the time for letters posted in Holland to reach the two Windward Islands.

According to Keijzer, there are a number of factors hindering the timely delivery of letters to St. Eustatius and Saba. One of the factors is the lack of airlines serving the islands. Keijzer mentions in her letter that currently FXDC on Bonaire has a contract with Winair, but that Winair has limited capacity to take on postal shipments and doesn’t have direct flights to either St. Eustatius and Saba.

Another complicating factor is that KLM’s ground handler in Bonaire doesn’t have sufficienty capacity to screen postal shipments, before they are shipped on for instance KLM, which is a requirement by the airline.

Alternatives

The State Secretary says the Ministry of Economic Affairs is looking at various alternatives. One of the alternatives would be to no longer ship letters for St. Eustatius and Saba through Bonaire, but to start sending the letters to St. Maarten and let the Postal Services in St. Maarten take care of shipment to both islands.

The Ministry is also considering other, more ‘exotic’ options, like the enlisting of commercial services which open and scan letters to send them in digital forms (for instance by e-mail) to the addressees.