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WILLEMSTAD, Curacao -- Curacao airline Dutch Antilles Express (DAE) will take its local competitor Insel Air, its directors and shareholders to court, according to Nelson Ramiz, chief consultant of DAE.

Law firm Soliana Bonapart & Aardenburg is currently considering the formulation of the claim, said Ramiz.

“DAE has given Bonapart instructions to find exactly what director Edward Heerenveen said about our daily flights to Paramaribo, here in Curacao and in Suriname. Then we’ll look at how we can sue Insel Air,” Ramiz said.

Heerenveen has commented negatively in different media on the daily flight by DAE to Suriname. He apparently insinuated that these flights are against the law. Heerenveen has also stated that DAE has had a preferential position towards Insel Air with the government for two years now.

“Usually I pay no attention to all nonsense that is said. But now it’s enough. This must stop,” Ramiz added.

On Thursday, DAE presented an agreement between the Dutch Kingdom and Suriname from 1995 for air services between and beyond the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname.

Article 9, paragraph 2 of the agreement states: “Requests for permission to operate additional flights can be submitted by the designated airline of one Contracting Party directly to the aeronautical authority of the other Contracting Party for approval.”

According to the Ramiz, the agreement is “as clear as an open skies”.

“I have good lawyers. DAE does nothing illegal. There are companies who believe in monopoly. DAE would be bankrupt they thought. But DAE survived and grew further. We shake the tree and the apples fall below,” Ramiz stated.

Ramiz, who previously sued Heerenveen personally for certain statements, won the case, and Heerenveen had to retract.

“Now I will not settle for a public apology; this time I will go for money,” Ramiz concluded.

Republished with permission of the Curacao Chronicle

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