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In October 2020, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy (‘Ministry’) are looking to gain insight into the political-societal value of Winair to support ministerial decision making on Winair’s support request.
Background
COVID-19 has severely affected the airline industry globally as unprecedented restrictions have resulted in significant financial damage as a result of cancellation and decreasing demand for business and leisure travel
- Winair is a regional airline founded in 1961 and owned by the state of St. Maarten (92,05%) and the state of Netherlands (7,95%)
- From St. Maarten, Winair operates flights to various Windward Islands, such as Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Barts, Nevis, Dominica, Tortola
- Winair has received support from the state of St. Maarten in the form of payroll support (60%, May 27) – the government has indicated to be unable to provide additional support
- Titan has formally requested support from the Dutch government on June 15th, specifically $10 million in the form of increasing of a capital injection, a subordinated convertible loan or firm guarantee
- An additional, short-term request came on July 11th, when Titan indicated it sought $ 2 million to alleviate pressure from creditors and prevent bankruptcy
- This project is conducted as part of project Calypso for the Dutch Ministry (strategic advice in state support requests of individual companies)
The report by PriceWaterhouseCooper Netherlands (PwC) has been made public by Koninkrijk.nu.
In the report, Winair is represented by the nickname “Titan”.
First read of this report: enormously biased and results were clearly visible steered by the duch government. Not an objective report, but obviously meant to better the concurrence position of winair by giving financial support to WinAir and not to competitors.
It is strange that a report that should have stayed secret, and in which the name Winair on purpose was changed to Titan, now came public. Who has done this? And what is the purpose of making this public?
Besides this, in the report many other regional airliners are not mentioned and certain possibilities of transport were omitted. It seems a report made behind a desk by a person or persons who do not know our region and our islands.