AIRPORT– Windward Islands Airways International Winair shareholders St. Maarten and the Netherlands attended the annual General Meeting on July 12 to receive the managing and supervisory boards’ report on the company’s business and activities for the fiscal year 2016 and the audited financial report for fiscal year 2016.
The independent auditors report was delivered with the mention of “unqualified” or “clean” opinion to the shareholders and a net profit of US $3.89 million was appropriated and posted to the reserves, according to a press release from the company on Tuesday.
The positive results the company has been posting for several years now have eroded the accumulated negative equity of past performances under the previous Netherlands Antilles shareholder and have reached to the point now that this forward trend “can and will” result in a positive equity position within two years if not less.
In anticipation of this, the shareholders will be reviewing the dividend policy with the supervisory and managing boards to ensure that the approved budgeted annual investment capital requirements can be met while leaving space for the shareholders to declare dividends on earned net profits.
“The supervisory board is super-excited about this milestone as only six years ago at its first meeting the question was raised “do we declare Winair bankrupt?” Thankfully, with the multitude of reports studied beforehand, the supervisory board of directors had unanimously agreed that the fundamentals for the company needed to be reset with the right management team to execute them,” the company stated.
“Besides the fact that Winair is doing very well financially, through the leadership of our CEO [Chief Executive Officer – Ed.] Michael Cleaver, the company continues to grow operationally, enhancing the bottom line. The supervisory board echoed the sentiments given by the CEO in his report, that the company’s most valued assets are its employees, as their hard work and dedication to serve the Winair customers have made and continue to make the difference in the turnaround of the airline,” according to the Winair press release.
“Already very pleased with the ‘clean opinion’ thanks to the dedicated efforts of our CFO [Chief Financial Officer – Ed.] Roberto Gibbs and his team, the other managers and staff too numerous to mention have done an excellent job in helping the company to achieve goals set forth such as route expansion, codeshare and interline agreements, security and regulatory auditing and certifications, and expansion of ground and passenger services to third parties, amongst so many.
“It should not be forgotten that the vision of management to work with regional and international partners to build connection bridges allowing passengers flying into and out of or around the Caribbean safely, conveniently and as comfortably as possible, has been a key component to its success.
“Winair has interline agreements with Air Antilles, Caribbean Airlines, Air Caraïbes, InselAir, KLM, Air France, PAWA, United, Copa Airlines, British Airways, Corsair and LIAT that allow passengers to seamlessly make their connecting flights to their final destinations, but even more impressive is the world-class Air France-KLM group having codeshare agreements with our airline.
“It is a testament to the competence level of Winair to meet its regulatory certifications and auditing processes that can rival larger international carriers. This is a highly-regulated industry requiring investments in training, certification, documentation and maintenance programs, so management makes it their mission to get it right for the safety and comfort of its customers and employees.”
Present at the annual General Meeting of shareholders were shareholder St. Maarten represented by the Council of Ministers and shareholder the Netherlands representative Rob Huijser assisted by Chris Johnson. Present for Winair’s managing board were CEO Cleaver and CFO Gibbs, and present for Winair’s supervisory board of directors were Vice-Chairman Gerrit Draai, Secretary Robert Budike and Chairman Georges Greaux who also chaired the meeting.
Greaux congratulated the shareholders for having a fine company with a bright future ahead of it.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/67773-winair-flying-towards-a-brighter-tomorrow
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