Surinam Airways

Surinam Airways ( also Dutch. Surinaamse Luchtvaart Maatschappij, short SLM ) is the national airline based in Suriname Paramaribo and base on the Paramaribo / Zanderij airport.

History

Today SLM was established in 1955. On January 7, 1955, she began with two new aircraft Cessna 170B a domestic service between Paramaribo Zorg en Hoop airfield and Moengo. After one of the two founders of the airline, Ronald Kappel in 1959 was killed in an accident, the Surinamese government in 1962 by Herman van Eyck, the last remaining private part owner bought the shares from the company. On August 30, 1962, the SLM was a state-owned enterprise. From 1964 to SLM participated together with the ALM and KLM in the liner service between Paramaribo and Curacao, with stopovers in Georgetown ( Guyana) and Port of Spain (Trinidad ). The SLM, at that time, however, not have its own aircraft on this route. The participation of the SLM was originally limited to the cabin crew as well as marketing activities in the two neighboring Guyana, the capitals Cayenne and Georgetown. Later pilots were added.

The first transatlantic flight took the SLM on November 2, 1975 in a chartered own responsibility of the KLM Douglas DC-8- 63. The machine was in his own business color painted with logo and was "25 November " baptized after the date of the forthcoming independence of Suriname.

Surinam Airways Boeing 747-300, in 2004 one of the KLM was baptized on 11 August 2004 in the name of one of the founders of the Surinam Airways, Ronald Elwin Kappel. In December 2009, the Boeing 747 has been replaced by an inherited Air France Airbus A340 -300. The one with 317 seats slightly smaller Airbus was named Palulu.

Destinations

Surinam Airways flies from Zanderij from Port of Spain, Curacao and Aruba in the Caribbean and to Miami in the United States, Belem in Brazil and is currently the only European goal to Amsterdam.

Fleet

As of November 2013, the fleet of aircraft consists of five Surinam Airways with an average age of 17 years:

Incidents

• On 7 June 1989, the Surinam Airways was affected by the worst air disaster in the history of Surinamese than in Zanderij one named after Anthony Nesty DC-8 crashed. This came from a total of 178 passengers and 9 crew members on board, 176 people (including all crew members) died.