Sint Maarten’s Winair readies to extend its Caribbean lifeline

By Chris Kjelgaard From AINonline

Three years after new top management turned around loss-making Caribbean regional carrier Windward Island Airways into annual profitability, the airline expects to close on a new injection of financing worth between $16 million and $28 million by the end of September, CFO Roberto Gibbs told AIN during a recent interview in Sint Maarten.

Better known as Winair, the Twin Otter operator plans to use the funding to buy the aircraft it operates, refinance existing debt and increase its working capital so it can seek route-network growth.

A vital lifeline for several Dutch and French islands in the Northeast Caribbean, Winair operates four DHC-6 Twin Otter 300s (five in its winter peak season). It currently leases all its Twin Otters from Canadian companies Kenn Borek Air and Unity Group.

Notwithstanding the fact that all of Winair’s Twin Otters have reached 40 years of age, they have held their value quite well, explained Gates. “The Twin Otter is a very hot commodity,” he said. “Rates are actually appreciating $5,000 a year on lease.”

Although Canada’s Viking Air now manufactures new Twin Otter 400s, that company’s order backlog represents seven years’ production, according to Gibbs. So in an effort to secure its supply of Twin Otters, Winair plans to exercise its purchase options on its existing airplanes and spend between $3.5 million and $4 million to own them outright.

Winair gets a startling amount of annual usage from its hard-working Twin Otters. Although each accumulates only an average of about 1,000 flight hours a year, each also operates between 4,500 and 5,000 cycles annually due to the short hops Winair flies. “We were one of the first [operators] to time out on the aircraft,” said Winair chief pilot Jeff Oliver. Twin Otter PJ-WIH (MSN 766) reached its 132,000-cycle life limit a couple of years ago.

Scheduled at 12 minutes block time, the carrier’s busiest route by far connects Sint Maarten with Saint Barthélemy. Even in low season—May through October—Winair operates 15 to 20 round trips on the route daily and in high season it operates as many as 38, according to Oliver.

The approaches to the Saint Barthélemy and Saba airports rank among the most extreme in the world. Winair allows only its captains to fly them and they get special training for each airport.

Winair performs all the maintenance on its Twin Otters. “Every time one of our aircraft touches down the maintenance cost goes ‘ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching,’ so we have to be perfect on maintenance,” said Gibbs, who added that Winair spends between $1.5 million and $2 million on maintenance annually.

As Sint Maarten’s national airline, Winair maintains a block-booking agreement for 30 out of 48 seats on every Air Antilles Express ATR 42 flight linking the Dutch territory with Dominica’s Melville Hall Airport and Guadeloupe’s Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport, the farthest-flung destinations in its route network.

Gibbs said that within two years Winair hopes to establish a base in Antigua, a formerly unprofitable destination it dropped when the airline’s owners hired him and CEO Michael Cleaver in 2011. Within the same time frame Winair also hopes to launch service to San Juan, Puerto Rico, using a block-booking agreement with Air Antilles Express modeled after the deals it already has in place with the Guadeloupe-based airline.

IMAGE: A Winair Twin Otter executes the ‘St. Barth Dive,’ requiring a 10-degree approach angle into Gustaf III Airport. (Photo: SXM Airport/Alain Duzant)

For more on this story go to: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2015-08-18/sint-maartens-winair-readies-extend-its-caribbean-lifeline