Air passenger arrivals and departures in the Caribbean Netherlands.
CARIBBEAN NETHERLANDS--More than 290,000 travellers passed through the airports of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba in 2021.
This represents an increase of almost 60 per cent compared to 2020, yet still a 36 per cent decrease compared to 2019 (when it stood at more than 457,000). With 17,400 air transport movements to and from the three airports, the number of arrivals and departures rose by more than 38 per cent relative to 2020, but was still approximately one third below the number of flights in 2019. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of newly-released figures.
Air passenger arrivals and departures for Bonaire, Saba and Statia.
More than 209,000 travellers flew to and from the Caribbean Netherlands during the second half of 2021. This is three times as many as during the second half of 2020, but 15,000 less than two years previously. With almost 40,000 air passengers, December was the busiest month of 2021.
Flamingo Airport in Bonaire received almost 90 per cent of all air passengers in the Caribbean Netherlands. In 2021, almost 260,000 passengers passed through its terminals, 62 per cent more than in 2020. Passing through the airports of St. Eustatius and Saba were 15,200 and 15,300 passengers respectively, representing respective year-on-year increases of 15.6 and 68.8 per cent.
The busiest months in terms of passenger transport were July through December. In Bonaire, these months accounted for more than 73 per cent of all transported passengers; in St Eustatius and Saba, 60 and 66 per cent respectively.
In both 2020 and 2021, Flamingo Airport in Bonaire was the fourth largest airport of the Netherlands in terms of passenger transport, after Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Eindhoven Airport and Rotterdam/The Hague Airport.
Of the three overseas Dutch airports, Flamingo Airport in Bonaire has the highest number of air transport movements. In the period 2019-2021, each year approximately 60 per cent of all flights to and from the Caribbean Netherlands went via Bonaire. Of the other flights in this period, 24 per cent were to or from F.D. Roosevelt Airport in St Eustatius and the remaining less than 16 per cent to or from Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport in Saba.
There was no flight ban to the Caribbean Netherlands in July 2020 and the number of arrivals and departures in Bonaire was on the increase. Bonaire was also the largest destination for international flights after May 15, 2021, when the COVID-19 measures were eased. In the second half of 2021 more than 6,400 flights arrived in Bonaire, representing an 80 per cent increase relative to the second half of 2020.
The largest increase (114 per cent) occurred in Saba with 1,900 flights in the second half of 2021, 1,000 more flights than one year previously.
