Bonaire Express

Bonaire Express was an airline based in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. It was the regional airline for the Netherlands Antilles and also acted as a feeder to KLM for its long-haul services to Europe. Its main bases were Flamingo International Airport (BON), Bonaire, Queen Beatrix International Airport (AUA), Aruba and Hato Airport (CUR), Curaçao.

Code Data

*IATA Code: 9H
*ICAO Code: BXL

History

The airline was established in 2003 and started operations on 18 August 2003. It was formerly known as BonairExel and was wholly owned by Bonaire Participation. It has recently merged with Curaçao Express to form Dutch Antilles Express.

Services

Bonaire Express operated the following services (at January 2005):

*Domestic scheduled destinations: Bonaire, Curaçao and St Maarten.

*International scheduled destinations: Aruba.

Fleet

The Bonaire Express fleet consisted of the following aircraft (at January 2005):

*2 ATR 42-320 (Original BonairExel/Express PH/PJ-XLL and PH/PJ-XLM)
*1 ATR 42-320 (Leased from ArubaExel PH/PJ-XLI)
*1 ATR 42-320 (PJ-SLH)
*1 ATR 42-500 (CuracaoExel/Express PH/PJ-XLN)
*1 Embraer ERJ 145MP (Later sold to City Airline PH-RXB)

Incidents and Accidents

In the month of September 2004, A Dutch Antilles Express (while still under "BonairExel" operations), an ATR 42-320, Registration PJ-XLM, had to make an emergency landing to a small fire that started in the number 2 engine. The planes was flying to Curaçao when the passengers sitting on the left side of the aircraft noticed that smoke was coming out of the engine. The aircraft landed safely at Hato International Airport. No one was. A few weeks later, the ATR aircraft was successfully restored and is still flying with DAE.

External links

* [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=tropical+airways&start=0&sa=N AirlinersNet pictures]
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