The idea sounds sympathetic enough, certainly at first glance. Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk is looking into reducing the cost for residents who can’t afford what are called high ticket prices to fly between the Windward Islands.
To be sure, cheaper inter-island travel was specifically requested at the Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultations IPKO in St. Maarten last January. The Dutch cabinet member is merely trying to execute what elected representatives of Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the Netherlands had agreed on.
One suggested option is a voucher system. However, the question how exactly that would be funded was not answered.
Plasterk himself acknowledged that a large part of the airfare is determined by taxes and levies for use of the airports in question. He added that local parties thus have instruments to influence the rates and mentioned that Winair is largely owned by St. Maarten.
The latter is true, although the Netherlands is also a minority shareholder on behalf of its overseas special public entities Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands). However, just because it involves a Government-owned company doesn’t mean public administrators can tell the supervisory board and management what to do.
Moreover, corporate governance rules actually forbid meddling in the daily affairs of the commercially-run airline, which has gone through great financial difficulties in recent times. Therefore, anything that might jeopardise its continuity and the progress made since should obviously be avoided.
The same “arm’s length” approach also applies to Princess Juliana International Airport SXM, which must not only operate without a loss and service existing loans, but comply with strict conditions set for the financing of its new terminal, expansion and other investments in the past. If the Council of Ministers in Philipsburg cannot even enforce the payment of dividends or a concession fee by SXM Airport under the current circumstances, it may be bit naïve to think much could be done there.
So, while some no doubt welcome the notion of assisting the less fortunate in flying between Statia, Saba and St. Maarten, this will be hard to realise without some type of subsidy. It again seems like a typical case of “putting your money where your mouth is.”
