Winair pulls out of several routes after six months

The airline that just six months ago announced that it would be challenging Liat's dominance in the eastern Caribbean has itself had its wings clipped.

Winair's main shareholder, the government of St. Maarten, has forced the airline to drop its routes to St. Lucia and Trinidad, which were introduced only in June, last year.

It has also asked for the resignation of the carrier's board of directors.     Winair is a small carrier which flies mainly to the northeastern Caribbean and had its eyes set on expanding, especially to the south.

It was in June that Winair started service to St. Lucia and later Trinidad and reintroduced service to Tortula and Dominica.

It said it sensed that market conditions were ripe for it to spread its wings and even announced long term intentions to start flights to Barbados and hopefully provide a strong challenge to LIAT. Six months later those dreams are over.

Winair’s General Manager Captain Edwin Hodge said within that time a new government came to power in St. Martin and they weren’t prepared to have their airline fly routes which weren’t making a profit.