Winair announces turn-around after near bankruptcy

Six years after it almost filed for bankruptcy, one of the airlines that serves the British Virgin Islands and other countries in the region has announced net profit of $3.89 million, adding that its employees contributed significantly to the turn-around.

Windward Islands Airways International (Winair) made the disclosure after its shareholders from the Netherlands (country) and the neighbouring St Maarten attended their Annual General Meeting this month. There, they received a report on the company’s business and activities for the fiscal year 2016, and presented 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.”

“The positive results that the company has been posting for several years now, has eroded the accumulated negative equity of past performances under the previous Netherlands Antilles shareholder, and has reached to the point now that this forward trend can – and will result in a positive equity position within two years if not less,” Winair said.

It further stated that, in anticipation of achieving the positive equity position, shareholders will review the dividend policy to ensure budgeted annual investment capital requirements can be met, while leaving space for shareholders to declare dividends on earned net profits.

“The supervisory board is super excited about this milestone, as it was only six years ago at their first board 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 it,” Winair explained.

It stated that, besides the fact that it is doing ‘very well financially’ under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Michael Cleaver, it continues to grow and enhance its bottom-line operationally.

“The supervisory board echoed the sentiments given by the chief executive officer in his report, that the company’s most valued assets are its employees, as their hard work and dedication to serve the Winair customers has made – and continues to make the difference in the turnaround of the airline.”

Winair also noted the airlines with which is has interline agreements, adding that it is even more impressed that it has codeshare agreements with the world-class Air France-KLM group.

“It is a testament to the competence level of Winair to meet its regulatory certifications and auditing processes that can rival larger international carriers,” Winair further said in a press release.

“This is a highly regulated industry requiring investments in training, certification, documentation, and maintenance programmes. So management makes it their mission to get it right for the safety and comfort of its customers and employees.”