DutchCaribbeanExel


DutchCaribbeanExel was an airline with its head office in Amsterdam. It was an airline, that was connecting Netherlands to the Netherlands Antilles and was based at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

History

The airline was established in 2004 and started operations on 15 July 2004. It was wholly owned by ExelAviationGroup. The airline folded in February 2005 when the ExelGroup declared bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy

DutchCaribbeanExel was part of the Exel Group which consisted of BelgiumExel, AlsaceExel, and DutchCaribbeanExel. The Exel Aviation Group started to disintegrate late-2004, soon after the takeover of DutchBird; when failed Air Holland was investigated for alleged laundering of drug money and arrests were made, it put HollandExel in negative publicity as well.
In Feb.2005 HollandExel filed for the Dutch equivalent of Chapter 11 and its main client, tour operator TUI Netherlands invested millions to keep the airline flying. Two months later, TUI Netherlands continued HollandExel under new management, operating as ArkeFly and the fleet of aircraft plus some 400 employees moved to the new company. In May 2005 HollandExel was declared bankrupt.
DutchCaribbeanExel was originally part of the Exel Aviation Group, but was taken over, together with parent airline, HollandExel, by TUI Nederland, and renamed Arkefly Curaçao.

Destinations

DutchCaribbeanExel operated the following services :
Domestic scheduled destinations:
Amsterdam
International scheduled destinations:
Aruba.
Bonaire
Curaçao
The DutchCaribbeanExel fleet consisted of the following aircraft :