Dutch Caribbean Airlines was an airline based in Curaçao, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was established in 1964 and ceased operation in 2004.
[edit] History
Dutch Caribbean Airlines was actually established in 1964 as Air ABC (Air Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao) and the airline was later renamed to Antillianse Luchtvaart Maatchappij (ALM) to take over the services of the Caribbean division of KLM.
The airline was succeeded by Air ALM, which was owned by the same DC Holding that owned ALM Antillean Airlines and later Dutch Caribbean Airlines.
[edit] Destinations
These are the destinations that were operated by "Dutch Caribbean Airlines" when the airline was in service:
[edit] Caribbean
[edit] Europe
[edit] North America
[edit] South America
During the transfer of the airline’s assets from Air ALM, the airline acquired some of the Air ALM aircraft and later on received other aircraft for its own.
[edit] Self owned aircraft
Dutch Caribbean Airlines Fleet
| Aircraft |
Total |
Passengers
|
Registration |
Notes |
| Bombardier Dash 8-311 |
2 |
50 |
PJ-DHE, PJ,DHI |
The Dash 8's were replaced later on with the Twin Otters. The registration PJ-DHE was later changed to PJ-DHL and was sitting on the General Aviation's ramp at Curaçao for over three years with continual run up tests. The aircraft has now left the island and is in service with LIAT along with PJ-DHI. |
| De Havilland Canada Dash 6-300 Twin Otter |
2 |
19 |
PJ-TOC, PJ-TOD |
The Twin Otters were the replacement aircraft for the "supposed" aging Dash 8's PJ-TOD was sold to Windward Island Airways (Winair) and has been leased to Curaçao's new regional airline Insel Air to replace the airline's Embraer 110-P1 Bandeirante when in maintenance or on leave for a C-Check |
| Douglas DC-9-32 |
4 |
115 |
PJ-SNL, PJ-SNK, PJ-SNM, PJ-SNN |
The DC9's were all sold to Aserca Airlines, where they are still in service flying for Aserca. All of the aircraft have received new registrations and a new livery, complying with Aserca's color schemes. |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-82 |
2 |
152 |
PJ-SEF, PJ-SEG |
After years of being parked next to the hangars of the airport, PJ-SEF sadly was towed away from the hangars at the Curaçao Airport to the shredder on August 1, 2008 and PJ-SEG is supposedly scrapped in Mexico. |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-83 |
1 |
155 |
PJ-SEH |
|
[edit] Leased aircraft
When the airline began its downfall, it began creating alliances with other charter airlines. One by one these alliances were broken because of the allied airlines themselves had declared bankruptcy. When it seemed that the airline could not find a suitable airline to create an alliance with, the airline finally decided to declare bankruptcy. Here is the list for the leased aircraft:
[edit] Aircraft names
While flying for ALM, all of the aircraft in their fleet had their own names; most of these names were adopted from names of tree types local to the islands. After ALM became DCA, usage of the aircraft names were dropped, except for the MD80's. However, employees continued to make use of the name among themselves.
- PJ-SNK
- Kiyo
- PJ-SNL
- Liyo
- PJ-SNM
- Miyo
- PJ-SNN
- Niyo
Here is the list of the names of the MD80's:
The airline leased the Lockheed L-1011 from Luzair and Boeing 767 from Air Atlanta Icelandic after a struggle with most of its MD80 aircraft grounded with technical difficulties and the collapse of Sobelair.
[edit] External links
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