Tomas' Comment:
When I was in Suriname 4 years ago, I could see that Surinam Airways was in big trouble, having worked with and for 55+ airlines in 35+ countries one gets feel of the management, corporate culture and strategy, real fast, one has to if one is to FIX an airline in trouble, you cannot take 12 months of anything but hope and praying like now.
Anyway, I told them they were heading off the cliff with their poor strategy, management, debts, fleet, network and corporate culture.
Now, with NO aircraft, $80+ million in debt 4 lessors owing money, pension fund gone, brand image non existing on aircraft, billboards and nothing in Amsterdam either, it's a slow death, Made in Suriname, by many different governments that interfered with CEO's that knew NOTHING about airlines (banana plantation, another electrical grid system), and now sadly 400+/- employees with nothing to do but hope and pray and no pension for a better life after SLM!
A perfect case study of a third world state carrier mismanaged for decades, elsewhere the Board would call in an Administrator to figure out can it survive or not? if yes good find a good team and lots of money, if not, declare bankruptcy and liquidate it.
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Surinam Airways Must End Mid-Atlantic Route And Focus On The Caribbean, Says Aviation Expert
17, Octubre, 2018 254
Surinam Airways (SLM) cannot compete with KLM on the Paramaribo-Amsterdam route, and hence the company needs to get rid of its A340-300 and outsource the route as a joint venture, focusing instead on where SLM can have a competitive advantage, “And that is the Caribbean right now,” the ‘aviation doctor’ Tomas Chlumecky suggested.
On the mid-Atlantic route, Chlumecky suggested that SLM seek a joint-venture with TUI or Turkish Airlines (TK). For example, TK can fly Istanbul-Amsterdam and then Paramaribo as a joint venture and split the profit, using a B777 or B787, and forget about wide body airliners.
Chlumecky has called on SLM to focus its renewal plan on expanding into Brazil, Guyana, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica, St Maarten, the US, and Panama, and forget running two different fleets.
He also urged SLM to stick with one type of aircraft. “It is inefficient in such low numbers” to have one Airbus 340, 1 Boeing 737-300 and one Boeing 737-300, he pointed out.
According to Chlumecky, Guyana and Curacao need a local airline and, instead of each going their own way, they should work together. SLM can fly out of Curacao and through Georgetown.
“A joint venture should have been done a long time ago,” he remarked.
Chlumecky said wide body airliners are very expensive. SLM can never be very competitive as a wide body operator. SLM uses a single Airbus A340-300 on its only long-haul flight to Amsterdam.
This route holds historical ties between Suriname and Holland.
“The big future for SLM is the Caribbean Basin market with five to eight Boeing 737 NGs, ideally B737-8 (Max8s), for best economics,” Chlumecky said, adding that SLM needs to think “big; forget thinking small. It has gotten SLM nowhere. Look at the Caribbean; right now you have Caribbean Airlines (CAL), Cayman Airways, Bahamasair and Sunrise as the only operators of commercial jets, and its open to 5th freedoms, 6th freedoms, 7th freedom.”
Meanwhile, SLM rebuked Chlumecky in a press release on Thursday for his “reckless” commentary that has done “damage” to SLM…
