Today’s story on a petition against the monopoly position of Air France on flights from Paris is relevant for the Dutch side as well, not in the least because it regards Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA). Launched on January 24, a total of 3,149 signatures had been collected effective March 3, with a final target of 5,000.
Since Air Caraibes stopped its transatlantic service to PJIA in favour of the Dominican Republic, there has been no competition for the French national carrier on the route, presumably leading to higher ticket prices. There are also complaints about airfares between St. Martin, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
St. Maarten faces a similar problem with airlift from the Netherlands with KLM, which actually merged with Air France several years ago. While the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao) have other options with TUI Fly and Corendon, KLM is pretty much the only game in town regarding flights to PJIA from Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam.
This is nothing new, mind you, as the Dutch carrier’s monopoly position on the mid-Atlantic has been a bone of contention since the days of the former Netherlands Antilles. TUI flew to St. Maarten for a while, but then basically left the destination to KLM.
Another issue is that the return leg is via Trinidad, which adds significant travel time. Having to use too much jet fuel to take off and clear the hills of Cole Bay was given as reason not to go back to Amsterdam directly in the past, but just think of the extra flight hours.
It might be worthwhile to consider a parallel Dutch-side petition and start applying the same kind of political pressure as is being done north of the open border, even taking it to the European Union (EU) level if necessary. Two stand taller than one.
