(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO — While Suriname is preparing for an open sky policy with the United States, Surinamese airline companies will not be allowed direct flights.
Suriname meets almost all safety requirements, but refuses to allow the Americans inspections at the Johan Adolf International Airport (JAPI). ‘We won’t be able to account politically for American presence at the airport. We refuse they do our work for us, because we’re capable of doing it ourselves,’ chairman of the board and presidential advisor on airline matters, Gerard Brunings
Due to the current situation, national carrier SLM flies to Miami with stops in Georgetown and Aruba. Other companies that want to depart from Suriname for the US must have similar flight schedules.
‘There’s no rush to allow the Americans in. It’s more lucrative to fly via Guyana and Aruba, because there are a lot more passengers that travel from Guyana to the US than from Suriname,’ Brunings explains the reason for the SLM stance to refuse direct flights on the US.
The Georgetown-Miami route is one of the most lucrative for SLM. Suriname and the US have been negotiating an Open Sky agreement for some time. ‘They are allowing us so much: no restrictions on capacity, frequency, and number of airline companies or tariffs.
