Insel Air (formally Insel Air International B.V.) was a Dutch Caribbean carrier that served as the national airline of the island of Curaçao. It was headquartered in Maduro Plaza, Willemstad."General conditions " (Archive) Insel Air. Retrieved on 21 March 2014. "Our Registered Address is Dokweg 19, Maduro Plaza, Willemstad, Curacao." Insel Air last served five destinations throughout the Caribbean, South America. Its fleet consisted of Fokker 50 aircraft. The airline had a hub at Hato International Airport in Curaçao.
Insel Air was incorporated as a private limited liability company (Dutch: Besloten Vennootschap) on September 8, 1993. Insel Air has been impacted by the Venezuelan crisis and is estimated to hold approximately $100 million in Venezuelan bolívars. The inability to convert bolívars to US dollars resulted in the airline ceasing operations of its Aruban subsidiary as of June 7, 2017, and affected the rest of the airline's operations with a major downsizing of fleet and destinations. In February 2019, Insel Air itself ceased operations.
History Early years Insel Air started operations on August 28, 2006, with one Embraer 110-P1 Bandeirante catering to the Curaçao-Aruba route. Soon afterwards, Insel Air began flights to the neighbouring island of Bonaire and also to Las Piedras in Venezuela. Starting in January 2007, the airline began serving the Eastern and Northern Caribbean via Sint Maarten with a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 and with an additional McDonnell Douglas MD-82 in June 2008. Insel Air also added services to Miami via Curaçao and Bonaire at this time.
In September 2009, Insel Air took delivery of a third MD-82 aircraft. It arrived at Curaçao as N434AG, being the only MD-80 with the known "screwdriver tail" at the time. Insel took delivery of its fourth MD82 on December 4, 2009, and fifth MD82 in May 2011. At this time Insel Air began operating four new destinations: Medellin, Charlotte, Barquisimeto and Caracas.
2011-2016: development Following the introduction of new services to Medellin and Charlotte, the airline added a fifth MD-80 on May 12, 2011, with an introduction of new flights to Charlotte.
The company also completed the IATA operational safety audit (IOSA) and joined ALTA, the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association, in November 2011. On November 16, 2012, Insel Air inaugurated its Curaçao-Maracaibo route and began regular operations on December 14. Insel Air was originally planning to expand its MD-80 fleet in early 2012 but delayed the project due to delays in launching Insel Air Aruba.
In 2012 Insel Air Aruba received its AOC certificate, giving the airline official authorization to perform services out of Aruba. Insel Air Aruba began operating new routes to Miami, Santo Domingo, Cuba, St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, Curaçao, Caracas, Valencia, Maracaibo, Quito, Medellin and Manaus.
Insel Air and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines consolidated their cooperation with a code-sharing agreement, offering customers greater comfort and options and thereby enabling them to travel to destinations served by the two partners without having to re-check luggage. Additionally, flight schedules will be closely coordinated so that travel time is minimized. In August 2013 Insel Air celebrated its first ‘in house’ heavy maintenance (C-Check) in Curaçao on an MD-82. It was for the first time that the airline performed the check on its aircraft using its in-house expertise. In the past, the check was carried out abroad. The C-check is a big overhaul that needs to be conducted every year and a half according to regulations.
Insel Air inaugurated its first four services from Aruba operated by Insel Air Aruba in the first half of 2014. Insel Air Aruba began operations to Miami, Valencia, Caracas, which were already served by via Insel Air's Curaçao hub and Georgetown, Guyana was introduced in the network via Aruba in June 2014. Insel Air had also introduced Barranquilla, Colombia in June 2014 and La Romana, Dominican Republic in July 2014 from the airline's Curaçao hub.
The airline had also acquired three ex-KLM Cityhopper Fokker 70s, with the first aircraft having arrived on July 12, 2014. The Fokker jets are planned to be operated out of both the Aruba and Curaçao hubs. The Embraers were retired early in 2014. In December Insel Air introduced two new services from its hub in Curaçao: Port-of-Spain (in Trinidad) was relaunched on December 15, 2014, and Georgetown was added on December 18, 2014. On January 14, 2015, Insel Air Aruba introduced its direct flight to Manaus, Brazil. In 2015 the airline employed around 650 people, offered approximately 52 daily flights to 23 destinations and plans to grow to 27 destinations in 2015.
In the third quarter of 2015 Insel Air announced a target of 2017 as the year it hoped to acquire one or more Airbus 319s. With the acquisition of this aircraft type, new destinations in Canada, USA and South America like Argentina and Brazil could have become a serious option for the growing network of the airline. This acquisition did not occur due to the ensuing financial crisis.
2016: financial crisis and demise In late 2016, Insel Air began seeing growing financial issues due to non-payment from Venezuela which resulted in most of its Curaçao registered (PJ) aircraft being grounded due to lack of maintenance. This included two MD-80s and three Fokker 50s. The airline began leasing the four MD-80s and three Fokker 70 aircraft from its sister company Insel Air Aruba. In January 2017, after several incidents involving loss of cabin pressure, mostly involving the MD-80 aircraft, as well as the pilots refusing to take off from Sint Maarten, lead to the grounding of all of the Aruban registered (P4) aircraft that were leased to Insel Air from Insel Air Aruba by the Curaçao Civil Aviation Authority and Department of Civil Aviation in Aruba, for inspection. This included the four MD-80s and the two Fokker 70s in service. This resulted in 80% of the overall fleet being grounded, leaving only three Fokker 50s flying and all of the international flights being cancelled.
Due to the grounding, the airline has had to lease aircraft from other companies, including a Boeing 737-400 from USA-based Swift Air, and an Airbus A320 from Dominican Wings for its Sint Maarten-Santo Domingo flights. Other leased aircraft included an Estelar Latinoamérica Boeing 737-400 operating Barquisimeto and Caracas as well as a Fokker 70 from Fly All Ways for its Georgetown and Suriname routes.
Amid its current financial troubles, the airline would adapt its current flight schedule to accommodate its current state. In October 2016, it was announced that the airline would adapt its flight schedule to cut back on its shorter flights, mainly between Curaçao and Aruba. In January 2017, It was revealed that its Quito flights, which were upgraded to scheduled flights in 2016 has now been downgraded once more to seasonal flights and will be operated via Curaçao and is slated to resume in the summer of 2017. Flights between Miami and Port-au-Prince as well as Curaçao and Valencia have also been downgraded to seasonal flights and will resume in the higher travel season. Curaçao to Havana will have a month long hiatus ending in February but resuming in March 2017. Destinations such as Barranquilla and San Juan have also been dropped as the airline continues with its measures to stabilize its route network.
The Government of Curaçao, together with the shareholders and management of Insel Air joined forces to safeguard the vital air links for the island by ensuring that Insel Air is financially and operationally healthy and strong. The airline signed an agreement, whereby the government, under certain guarantees and conditions, provides a loan to Insel Air. Under this agreement, the government provides a loan of 33 million guilders (18.6 million dollars), payable in installments depending on the implementation of a stabilization plan. As security for this loan, the government obtains more pledge on 51% of the shares in the operating companies of Insel Air. The government acquires all normal shareholder rights, without becoming the owner.
In regards to the recent issues, as well as most of its fleet being used by Insel Air, Insel Air Aruba has suspended its commercial services using its own flight numbers while the Department of Civil Aviation of Aruba completes inspection of its current fleet after it was said in a statement that the Department of Civil Aviation would carry out routine inspection of four of its eight aircraft simultaneously which would gradually be released back into service when compliance was verified. The ensuing capacity shortage across both carriers has caused significant delays and cancellations with numerous enraged and unsatisfied customers. Insel Air, is in the process of restructuring its operations with help of the Government of Curaçao and its financial backing. As part of the plan, Insel Air Aruba would likely be re-positioned as a charter carrier going forward, although this has yet to be finalized.
In February 2017, it was announced that the airline's CEO, Albert Kluyver, would resign from his position after a transition period which has already started. Kluyver has led the organization in his role as chief executive officer since the early beginnings in 2006. Kluyver will continue his efforts, in his role as shareholder, to strengthen the liquidity of the company he co-founded by focusing on the repatriation of the outstanding funds in Venezuela and to find a strategic partner for the company. Mr. Gilles Filiatreault has been appointed as the company's temporary CEO until further notice.
It has been stated by the airline's executives that the aircraft comply with all safety regulations and that they are stable and safe to fly. The airline is currently looking into a stabilization plan. As a part of phase one, that the airline will be focusing on operating Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and Sint Maarten flights for the time being, which is considered the airline's core business. The second phase of the plan is to continue operations to Suriname and Miami. Venezuela, which used to be considered as the airline's "pot of gold", is not part of the stabilization plan.
The stabilization plans, which saw the airline operating mainly to the ABC Islands and Sint Maarten, proved positive with an improved on time performance of on average 90%, with a clear increase in customer satisfaction.Inselair International BV (Curaçao) very much on track with the stabilization plan, Curacao Chronicle, 6 June 2017
Since February 2017 InselAir operated the route Curaçao - Sint Maarten with a Fokker 50 turboprop aircraft. This was a consequence of the reorganization and downsizing of the company, during which the Fokker 70 and MD-80 jets were phased out. Consequently, there had not been a jet service between Curaçao and St. Maarten for 15 months. The route was operated only with turboprop aircraft, extending the travel time between the islands to 2.5 hours. During that period, InselAir received numerous requests from the market for reinstatement of a jet service because it shortened the travel time between the islands significantly to only 1.5 hours. Insel Air tried to reinstate a jet service in November 2017 but this was short lived. On June 27, 2018, Insel Air announced the addition of the Embraer E-190 Jet, leased from the Venezuelan airline Conviasa. This would be the first step towards the growth that has been planned for the coming year. It would also be used for the Surinam market and several other destinations which have yet to be announced.