Anybody hear an update from RAA? I sent them a private email but have not heard back from them. Their last excuse for a delay was b.s. I'm curious to see what they come up with this time.

BTW, I am all in favor of their success. Unfortunately, I am one of those who bought a non-refundable ticket to Aruba in anticipation of the RAA connections. Now I am faced with the DCA flights and an extra overnite.

We will not be giving any further updates on RAA on this bulletin board so people like gregg brewer can qualify them as b.s.
The date of our inaugural flight will be announced on our website.

Rory,

Please reconsider. Having your information about your flights posted here can provide your airline with quite a bit of publicity, especially in light of the fact that you have the opportunity to offer direct service in contrast to ALM/DCA/DCE/whatever they are.

And, in your defense, I would disagree with Gregg - Antillean politics are great at delaying potentially good efforts and projects, and there are definitely subsidiary effects (pilot recertification in your case) as a result of such delays.

Further, once you do start flying, you'll be seeing reviews of your service here. If you don't participate you won't see whether people are truly impressed (or disappointed) with your airline, nor will you learn what your customers think you are doing right or wrong. Past experience shows that people tend not to praise or complain (except in extreme cases) a business directly, but do talk to friends and others, and BonaireTalk provides such a venue.

So, again, please think about what serves your airline better - being annoyed with someone who stated an opinion you didn't like (and in a way you didn't like) and packing it up, or continuing to be part of what happens here, being proactive and active in communicating with potential customers.

Jake

Yes Rory.

As a business servicing the island, what better forum to showcase your efforts, and ---- explain
your side of the situation should a mix up occur. No business is perfect, and if you allow and monitor feedback, you can course correct faster than perhaps otherwise. Should you handle potentially rough situations with graceful dispatch and aplomb, I believe you'll find many advocates here that will not only be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and another chance, but take your side when those that may not be fully versant with your operation - become critical for whatever reason.
Remember. We are all looking for transportation to and from the island. Your service may be significant to me and my family, so we're standing by. Best of luck.

The Clownfish.

Yeah, I agree with Jake. I certainly look forward to another option of getting to Bonaire and would use your airline, as I have other local Caribbean airlines in the past. I prefer giving local businesses a chance rather than feeding the big fish in the pond whenever I can.

Karl H. (Canada)

I basically agree with Jake.

That said, on Gregg's side, how about the 'non-refundable' ticket??? It seems to me that the airline in this situation has a responsibility to honor, in some way of commensurate value to the customer, a ticket sold, especially if the customer had the confidence to purchase the ticket as 'non-refundable', even if the 'fault' is not directly the airline's. Painful to the airline but in order.

I’m very interested in the progress or RAA and hope very much you will continue use this forum to communicate to us the availability of flights.

Scott

Glen, Karl, Brian and Jake...

Just to clear up a few issues...the non refundable ticket is from U.S. to Aruba. I do not expect RAA to be accountable for that ticket. I take full responsibility for stepping up to support RAA in May by purchasing a USAir ticket for September. My expectations were that RAA had a handle on the politics and would be successful in commencing activity by September even though they initially promised a May start up date. My expectations were also that the new company would plan for success.

Nobody wants RAA to be successful more than I do! There is a great opportunity to serve Bonaire as this would open up the air options to Bonaire. As Brian pointed out, BT is the perfect arena for RAA to step forward and provide friendly and timely updates or even their side of a story. In fact, that was the very point of my posting. Had anybody heard anything from RAA regarding the early September start up as promised in a posting on August 8th? Nothing was posted on BT or the RAA web site. The latest news flash on their web site was June 17th.

Perhaps RAA objects to my use of the phrase "b.s." I would be happy to retract that phrase if RAA would give plausible reasons for repeatably postponing their start up service to Bonaire. The most recent (early August) reason was that the pilot's lisences had expired. That should give everyone a warm cozy feeling. Actually, I am not that worried about the pilots or "expired liscences". I have much more confidence in the FAA or AUA xxx (Arubian version of the FAA)that ensure the pilots are qualified. I would rather be told that the permits etc had still not been approved rather than a story that the management had allowed all the pilot's lisences to expire at the same time 2 weeks before the first flight.

I also am a supporter of local Bonairian businesses. I personally am responsible for sending ~20 weeks of divers each year to Bonaire. If each person spends $1500/wk, the total revenue generated is $30M. I am also working on an arrangement to start a business in Bonaire. Getting to and from Bonaire is important to me. I flew ALM many times and never had a problem.

What is my beef? I expect RAA to provide voluntarily frequent honest communications / updates to their potential customers... BTW, I plan to be a regular passenger on RAA.

Below is a string of postings from RAA on BT from April/August. At what point does rhetoric become b.s.? Like I said, I could buy an argument that the politics held things up....but "oops, our pilot's lisences all expired"...gimme a break

BTW, I encourage rebuttals to my posting. BT provides an arena for a healthy debate. How many other folks out there bought tickets to Aruba?

from April BT "...Received an email from Royal Arubian Airlines Wednesday afternoon which stated that the start up had been delayed. They are now expecting to start operations at the end of May. They say their web site will be functional by early May...."


from April BT "...I've tried to contact the new Royal Arubian Airlines several times via their email. They wrote back only one time and said they'd be up an running by mid April. Their site still does not show fares.
Jake...is this airline going to fly (no pun intended)... any word in Bonaire?..."

from BT post June 13 ".... called Royal Aruban Airlines yesterday afternoon in Aruba and they said their target startup has been pushed back to July...."

from BT post "On Friday, July 19, 2002 Royal Aruban Airlines was granted its AOC (=Air Operating Certificate). We are now in the process of requesting landing permits in Bonaire & Curaçao. This should take a couple of days. Depending on the latter, we should be operating two daily flights between Aruba and Bonaire as of August 1, 2002. "

from July 30th "Sorry Folks. It is taking a little longer, Royal Aruban Airlines has not yet obtained the landing rights in Bonaire and Curaçao from the Netherlands Antillean Civil Aviation Department. We're anxious, and expect to get the permit in the next few days."

from August 8th "Hi Folks. Following is an update on Royal Aruban Airlines:
Due to the long waiting on official documents and permits - first the Air Operator Certificate and then the Landing Rights in Curaçao and Bonaire - our pilots' licenses have expired as they have not flown for such a long time.
To renew their licenses they have to repeat their "Simulator Training" and this will take a couple of weeks. Simulator Time needs to be reserved and booked and they will have to travel to Atlanta, Georgia to get access to an Embraer 120 simulator.
We expect that all re-training and re-licensing will have taken place by the end of the month and are looking at start-up of services in the first days of September."

Thank you Jake, Brian, Karl, Glen and Scott. It’s good to know that there are still some positive thinking people around.
Yes, you are right; we were being transparent and tried to keep all interested informed about the developments with the airline. This we have been doing voluntarily and honestly until some gb came along and qualified the reasons (“excuses” as per gb) for the delays as BS. You will understand that such an attitude immediately put a halt to our enthusiasm and willingness to inform you all that there is an alternative non-stop flight [from Aruba] in the make for those that have to get to Bonaire from this island, and the developments in the preparation of those flights. I will not go back to earlier posts, as that story is known.
Where do we stand now?
We were granted TWO flights per day to Curaçao, and TWO flights per day to Bonaire by the local Aviation Authority. Operating FOUR [thirty minute or less] flights per day with a 29-passenger aircraft is commercially not profitable.
Our purpose now is:
1. obtain landing rights in Venezuela so that we can use our aircraft more efficiently by combining Curaçao and Bonaire with Las Piedras in Venezuela.
2. obtain a commercially acceptable number of flights between Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles (in this case Curaçao and Bonaire). This must be negotiated by the Governments of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles in a new Aviation Bilateral Agreement.
How long will it take for any of the two above mentioned “wishes” to be realized? Your guess is as good as ours.
As to the pilots: They are all ex-Air Aruba pilots (MD-80 and MD-90 aircraft) and will all be duly certified when we are ready to start.

Rory,

From what I understand, you have Aruban rights to fly. But, has RAA been granted landing rights by the Neth. Antilles government yet or is that somehow being blocked due to Curacao (and DCA) politics?

Jake

Jake:
The present Bilateral Agreement between Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles is based on a limitation of frequencies (flights).
For instance:
As per the bilateral The Netherlands Antillean Company (DCA: using Dash8/50pax, DC9/80pax and MD80/140pax aircraft) is granted 35 flights per week between Curaçao and Aruba.
The TWO Aruban companies TOGETHER(Avia Air and Royal Aruban Arlines; using 16 and 29 passenger EMB aircraft) are collectively granted the same 35 flights per week between the two islands. For Bonaire the number of flights is 28 per week.
For what the Aruban Companies are concerned, the Aruban Aviation Authority has divided the 28 flights to Bonaire by two, and granted 14 per week to each airline, that translates to two flights per day to Bonaire for RAA.
Hope the above is clear.

Thanks. That does help explain things, a lot.

Of course I disagree with the Antillean government that DCA is "The Netherlands Antilles" airline, since it's owned by the island of Curacao and certainly has not shown itself to have Bonaire's interests as similar to its interests in the past, but that's neither here nor there.

Jake

Mr. Arends,

I am glad to see that you accepted Jake's and the others challenge and offer further explanations for the developments in the RAA efforts to start flights to Bonaire. Your explanation above is substantially different than your explanation of Aug 8 (as quoted several postings previous).

Contrary to your beliefs, I am a positive thinker and strong supporter for the RAA principle. If there is any question about that fact, go back to March postings and follow my comments up to early August. Every one of my postings on this string includes a statement expressing my support for RAA success. I could be a regular and frequent customer. I hope RAA doesn't react to every negative comment toward RAA in the same fashion they have reacted to this one.

With that being said, when does RAA plan to make the first flights to Bonaire or when does RAA plan to make that announcement on their web site?

According to the newspaper Amigoe, the personel of RAA has been told they can go look for other jobs. The company even hasn't got the money to pay the last 2 months of salaries.
Only finding new investors in the next three weeks can save the company from bankrupcy, but since one of it's investors, Air Holland, is in financial trouble itself, the future doesn't look good.

yeah..I just recieved e-mail answer to question on cost and schedule to Bonaire from Aruba on RAA and was told no schedule available right now..wish I felt more confident that I could book on this airline....Gregg should get a refund if this situation was out of his hands..but if they can't even pay their employees..hmmmmm...the challanges of living on an island

Royal Aruba has ceased operations according to the latest report in the local press.

Newest up date. Extra, the Papiamentu paper, reported that the company is not folding. Stranger and stranger, eh?

will have to "sit tight" on this one..just hope we get to see you in the airport again Michael..made ourselves known to you last year..unfortunatly did'nt have the requsite NY Times of Folgers coffee and so we only said hello while waiting for incoming guests like you were...must be the pastime in Bonaire besides diving...waiting at the airport to pick up visitors.....at least it's a sweet airport

I raised the flags several weeks ago about RAA after RAA began reporting bizarre excuses for their delayed start-up. I just returned (Sat nite) from Bonaire thru Aruba and can verify that the shades are pulled and lights are out at RAA. Although I supported the concept for RAA, I was not impressed with their business management. The current connections from Aruba to Bonaire are such that I would not recommend going this route. Avia Air was ok on the flight from Aruba to Bonaire but they have a severe weight restriction (22 kg) which is tough to meet with dive gear. Also, since their flight is scheduled for 7:00 pm (and delayed one hour), there is a very long layover in Aruba from the U.S. flights. The return flight from Bonaire to Aruba on DCA was uneventful except for the change in planes at Cur (yuck!!!)

I am saddened to hear this news. I have competetors coming from AUA to BON for the windsurf event and wonder how they can get gear to BON? Does DCA fly TO Bonaire??

Annie
www.bonaireworldfreestyle.com

Annie,

DCA does fly AUA-BON via CUR, but it's usually on Dash-8s, which are too small to handle Windsurfing gear...

Jake

Yes, there was news about Royal Aruban Airlines in the local Aruban Newspapers yesterday (12/10) and today (12/11). We are still there - and not out of business as many have thought - and making bigger plans than before. Why?
The three daily flights to Curaçao and the two daily flights to Bonaire granted to RAA last July did not justify the start up of operations. The total flying hours under this grant would have been less than 4 hours per day. Nobody can run an airline profitably under these circumstances. So it was decided to keep our plane on the ground and loose less money.
We were quiet these last few months, as we were preparing better plans for the airline and it's future customers - our passengers.
The decision has been taken to do away with "Phase One" of the project (fly two 30 passenger aircraft in the region), and go directly into "Phase Two". This implies:
1. Returning the Emb 120 turbo-prop to its owner;
2. Lease two DC9-15 jet aircraft with a seating capacity for 75 passengers (very comfortable), of which the first one will be in Aruba before the end of this month/year. These aircraft used to be TWA's and have just undergone their D-Check. They are in excellent condition.
3. Taking into consideration the time required for the Aruba Civil Aviation Department to inspect the aircraft and register it under the Aruba P4 sign, we expect to be flying commercially sometime in February 2003.
At first our two flights to Bonaire (from Aruba) will be at 6:00 pm and 7:45 pm however, approximately a month after the schedule will change.
Flights to Bonaire [from Aruba] are then planned for: 8:50am; 6:15pm/7:15pm. Return flights BON-AUA will be at 10:30am and 7:20pm/8:55pm.
Royal Aruban Airlines will also be serving: Curaçao, St. Maarten, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
In the "Third Phase" [larger aircraft] we will go further south in South America (Ecuador) and further north to Florida, USA.
More news will follow as the developments take shape.

Hmm, if BonairExel ever sees the light, we could have more choice in planes than in restaurants on Bonaire!

Good luck, Rory. Dealing with any bureauracy is so very frustrating. Hang in.