Air Antilles was forced to suspend all its flights from midnight on Monday, December 8, following the decision of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) to freeze its air transport certificate (CTA). The audit conducted from December 2 to 4 highlighted several missing “documentary and organizational checks”.
This setback comes just as the Collectivity of Saint-Martin, the majority shareholder, had granted a new exceptional loan of €3 million to support the company’s operations. Louis Mussington claims to have been informed Sunday evening by the Prime Minister’s office of “a few anomalies” noted during the inspection. A situation he describes as “which has become a very complex case” and that he places it within a broader political context: “This is a very important issue for this term of office.”
He insists on the need to maintain an affordable air service: “Do you think it’s normal that if Air Antilles were to disappear, it would cost ordinary citizens between €500 and €560 for a trip between Saint-Martin and Pointe-à-Pitre? That is the fundamental question.
Regarding the substance of the decision, the president of the Collectivity sought to reassure: “It’s not the Air Antilles fleet that’s being questioned, it’s the paperwork. (…) a number of reports and meetings that were not respected.” He recalls that “Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the flights were operational all day.” This, according to him, proved that “the emergencies” did not concern the condition of the devices. but regulatory requirements.
A corrective action plan, developed internally, was submitted on Tuesday, December 9: “It is now up to the DSAC to examine this plan.” Mussington said he wanted to speed up the process by contacting Matignon: “Security is an important issue, but if they can examine the files in 1 hour, they shouldn’t take 5 or 6 hours.”
The suspension of flights also has an immediate costAir Antilles passengers could be switched to Air Caraïbes flights, but the latter “is not going to do it for free (…) it could cost thousands of euros,” he warns, while the company is already going through a fragile financial period and many Air Caraïbes flights are full.
The president assures passengers that “tickets will be refunded or rescheduled for a later date” and insists: “We haven’t given up, we haven’t abandoned our passengers.” He hopes for a quick resolution: “This is a temporary situation, I hope. It could be resolved very soon.”
Source: Faxinfo https://faxinfo.fr/en/air-antilles-clouee-au-sol-mussington-defend-sa-strategie-et-presse-letat-dagir/
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