Airport/Grand Case:--- The lack of jet fuel on St. Maarten has raised concerns for several airlines that were affected on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, which has forced the Manager of Air Caraibes Daniel Richardson to speak out. In an exclusive interview with SMN News, Richardson said that no one from the Princess Juliana International Airport or SOL informed the airlines that there was no fuel on St. Maarten over the weekend. Richardson said Air Caraibes learnt of the fuel shortage around 4:30pm on Saturday afternoon when they contacted SOL to request fuel for their plane. "It was when I called SOL they told me there was no more fuel. I pleaded with SOL to see if they could find enough fuel for the aircraft to go over to Guadeloupe for fuel before heading to Paris. It took a while for me to convince SOL to drain their tanks and to supply Air Caraibes with fuel because all the other Airlines on the ground had to find hotel accommodations for their passengers Saturday evening," Richardson said.Richardson further explained that SOL told him that there was a barge outside of St. Maarten with the jet fuel but the fuel was not tested and therefore they could not supply the air-crafts with fuel on Saturday but they were assured that there would have been enough jet fuel on the island on Sunday. "When SOL told me that they were going to have fuel on Sunday I informed Paris and the captain that there was fuel on St. Maarten. However, when we began fueling up on Sunday afternoon SOL told us they did not have enough fuel for us. This situation placed Air Caraibes in a precarious situation because there was too much fuel in the plane to land in Guadeloupe and too little to take the plane to its scheduled airport. Air Caraibes plane had to make a stop in Nantes to get some fuel to take them to their destination. Because of that, the Airline suffered more expenses because they had to house the passengers that missed their connecting flights in other areas of Europe." Richardson said besides the additional expenses their flights are also delayed and they are forced to call in additional crew members when the crew over spent their time on board the flights. "On Saturday, an additional co-pilot and stewardess had to be called in to reinforce the flight crew before they could continue to Paris."
Richardson said so far PJIAE and SOL have not met with the Airlines to inform them of the current situation. Richardson said that he is of opinion that Air Caraibes is the only one that was affected on Sunday. He said currently his bosses in Guadeloupe are in communication with SOL and PJIAE to see if they could find a solution for the ongoing fuel shortage.
According to Richardson, a number of airlines were affected on Saturday. He said on the ground there were air-crafts from United Airways, Caribbean Airlines, Air Caraibes, Air Canada and two from US Airways.
A press release issued by DCOMM on Sunday stated that an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fuel shortage.
