Insel Air (formally Insel Air International B.V.) was a Dutch Caribbean carrier that served as the national airline of Curaçao. It was headquartered in Maduro Plaza, Willemstad. Insel Air last served five destinations throughout the Caribbean, South America. Its fleet consisted of Fokker 50 aircraft. The airline had a hub in Hato International Airport in Curaçao.
Insel Air was incorporated as a private limited liability company (Dutch: Besloten Vennootschap) on September 8, 1993. Insel Air has been impacted by the Venezuelan crisis and is estimated to hold approximately $100 million in Venezuelan bolívars. The inability to convert bolívars to US dollars resulted in the airline ceasing operations of its Aruban subsidiary as of June 7, 2017, and affected the rest of the airline's operations with a major downsizing of fleet and destinations. In February 2019, Insel Air itself ceased operations as well.
History
Early years
Insel Air started operations on August 28, 2006, with one Embraer 110-P1 Bandeirante flying out of Curaçao to the neighboring island of Aruba. Soon afterwards, Insel Air began flights to the neighbouring island of Bonaire and also to Las Piedras in Venezuela. Starting in January 2007, the airline began serving the Eastern and Northern Caribbean via Sint Maarten with a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 and with an additional McDonnell Douglas MD-82 in June 2008. Insel Air also added services to Miami via Curaçao and Bonaire at this time.
In September 2009, Insel Air took delivery of a third MD-82 aircraft. It arrived at Curaçao as N434AG, being the only MD-80 with the known "screwdriver tail" at the time. Insel took delivery of its fourth MD82 on December 4, 2009, and fifth MD82 in May 2011. At this time Insel Air began operating four new destinations: Medellin, Charlotte, Barquisimeto and Caracas.
Development 2011-2016
Following the introduction of new services to Medellin and Charlotte, the airline added a fifth MD-80 on May 12, 2011, with an introduction of new flights to Charlotte.
The company also completed the IATA operational safety audit (IOSA) and joined ALTA, the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association, in November 2011. On November 16, 2012, Insel Air inaugurated its Curaçao-Maracaibo route and began regular operations on December 14. Insel Air was originally planning to expand its MD-80 fleet in early 2012 but delayed the project due to delays in launching Insel Air Aruba.
In 2012 Insel Air Aruba received its AOC certificate, giving the airline official authorization to perform services out of Aruba. Insel Air Aruba began operating new routes to Miami, Santo Domingo, Cuba, St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, Curaçao, Caracas, Valencia, Maracaibo, Quito, Medellin and Manaus.
Insel Air and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines consolidated their cooperation with a code-sharing agreement, offering customers greater comfort and options and thereby enabling them to travel to destinations served by the two partners without having to re-check luggage. Additionally, flight schedules will be closely coordinated so that travel time is minimized. In August 2013 Insel Air celebrated its first ‘in house’ heavy maintenance (C-Check) in Curaçao on an MD-82. It was for the first time that the airline performed the check on its aircraft using its in-house expertise. In the past, the check was carried out abroad. The C-check is a big overhaul that needs to be conducted every year and a half according to regulations.
Insel Air inaugurated its first four services from Aruba operated by Insel Air Aruba in the first half of 2014. Insel Air Aruba began operations to Miami, Valencia, Caracas, which were already served by via Insel Air's Curaçao hub and Georgetown, Guyana was introduced in the network via Aruba in June 2014. Insel Air had also introduced Barranquilla, Colombia in June 2014 and La Romana, Dominican Republic in July 2014 from the airline's Curaçao hub.
The airline had also acquired three ex-KLM Cityhopper Fokker 70s, with the first aircraft having arrived on July 12, 2014. The Fokker jets are planned to be operated out of both the Aruba and Curaçao hubs. The Embraers were retired early in 2014. In December Insel Air introduced two new services from its hub in Curaçao: Port-of-Spain (in Trinidad) was relaunched on December 15, 2014, and Georgetown was added on December 18, 2014. On January 14, 2015, Insel Air Aruba introduced its direct flight to Manaus, Brazil. In 2015 the airline employed around 650 people, offered approximately 52 daily flights to 23 destinations and plans to grow to 27 destinations in 2015.