Brent Pin­heiro

brent.pin­heiro@guardian.co.tt

Sint Maarten-based air­line Winair has an­nounced in­ten­tions to be­gin fly­ing non-stop to Trinidad on Feb­ru­ary 1. In a me­dia re­lease, the air­line says it will op­er­ate flights be­tween Princess Ju­liana In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port (SXM) and Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port (POS) on Wednes­days and Sun­days. The air­line will use its ATR 42-500/600 fleet on the route, which re­mains sub­ject to ap­proval by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Civ­il Avi­a­tion Au­thor­i­ty.

Winair says the new route will al­low for both non-stop trips and on­ward con­nec­tions to An­tigua, St Kitts and Nevis, Tor­to­la, St Barths, Sa­ba and St Eu­sta­tius.

Com­ment­ing on the an­nounce­ment, Winair CEO Hans van de Velde says, “Port of Spain is a vi­tal gate­way for busi­ness, cul­tur­al ex­change, and on­ward trav­el, and we’re ex­cit­ed to of­fer a seam­less non-stop op­tion to and from Sint Maarten.”

Winair will com­pete with lo­cal car­ri­er Caribbean Air­lines on the route.