From left: President Louis Mussington and Vice Presidents Alain Richardson, Michel Petit, and Bernadette Davis. (Robert Luckock photo)
MARIGOT--It was a particularly sombre press conference held on Thursday, April 30, when President Louis Mussington faced the press for his first official reaction to the liquidation of Air Antilles announced on April 27 by the court in Guadeloupe.
Accompanied by Vice Presidents Alain Richardson, Michel Petit and Bernadette Davis, Mussington stressed: “Saint Martin did what had to be done by taking over Air Antilles in the interests of assuring territorial continuity and connectivity.
“We believed in this project, we fought until the end for Caribbean connectivity. We had the ambition to develop partnerships with the other islands and their airlines to develop a hub at Grand Case airport.”
With the airline struggling financially, there was no shortage of effort on Mussington’s part to seek financial support from the powers that be located in Guadeloupe and Martinique and the French State but none of them saw it fit to assist the Collectivité.
The race to find an investor produced businessman Dr. Pierre Sainte-Luce at the last minute but his project failed to convince the court. Mussington praised Sainte Luce for his “Caribbean solidarity and understanding of the urgency.”
Mussington expressed his deep regret over the liquidation decision.
“It is a bitter pill to swallow, and our thoughts are with the 116 mostly Guadeloupe and Martinique- based employees who are in a very precarious situation now. They believed in this project with us. The liquidation pronounced by the commercial court is a hard blow for the Collectivité but also for the French West Indies, which are deprived of healthy competition and air services that would have boosted the economy of our islands,” he added.
First Vice President Alain Richardson was even more forthright in his reaction, saying the Collectivité of Saint Martin “was completely let down in terms of support for what was essentially a public service.”
“Saint Martin did what it needed to do. That is to secure territorial continuity, meaning giving the population the mobility to travel to Guadeloupe or Martinique for the reasons of health, business, family visits, education, tourism and sports. Preventing a monopoly situation with one airline and setting fair ticket prices was also a priority,” Richardson said.
“The decision of the court to liquidate Air Antilles confirms we were not treated equally in the way other French companies are treated,” he added. “History shows that big companies like Air France, Corsair, Renault, EDF, receive financial support from the government because of the public service they are offering.
“Air Antilles was also rendering a public service. So we feel very deceived and abandoned by the French Government and also by Martinique and Guadeloupe. The latter two committed to contributing 2.5 million euros each to Saint Martin, but they never lived up to their commitment, despite knowing that 98% of the Air Antilles jobs were on those two islands, and seemingly ignoring the economic benefits that would have come to the airports of Guadeloupe and Martinique.”
Asked what the consequences will be on financing projects currently in operation, despite the loss of 20 million euros invested, Mussington assured that projects will not be affected due to other sources of financing available.
The Collectivité will closely follow procedures placed in the hands of the judicial administrator appointed by the commercial court, in particular a solution to reimburse unused airline tickets purchased by the public. With close to 60 million euros in debts, the administrator will be looking to sell off the assets, namely the four ATR planes.
