PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – Agriculture Minister, Krishna Mathoera, has promised to look into reports that the Dutch airline, KLM, would from February 1 stop transporting freight from Suriname.
Member of Parliament Radjendre Debie told Parliament on Thursday that the airline’s decision could collapse the agricultural sector. At the same time, exports of other products could also be affected.
Debie argued that farmers could suffer enormous losses due to the KLM decision and that many would also turn their backs on the agricultural sector.
KLM operates four flights weekly, and the legislator said the export of fruit and vegetables would fall away due to the embargo and urged the government to update the Parliament on this “urgent matter.”
Mathoera has promised to do so at the next sitting of the Parliament at the latest.
Meanwhile, a senior private sector official has confirmed that KLM has been written to seeking clarification on its position.
“It is also a shock for us. We are surprised because normally, with these kinds of far-reaching decisions, you first notify NV Luchthaven Management, but also the government,” Vijay Chotkan, director of Airport Management, told De Ware Tijd newspaper.
Chotkan said last December. He met with KLM representatives to discuss issues about which the company had expressed concern. Among other things, the company wanted to avoid cracks on runways where its planes have to taxi to handle passengers and cargo.
“We then made good agreements about the cracks we observed in the places where we let the KLM taxi.”
Chotkan said several measures were immediately implemented, and an investigation showed that the type of aircraft with which KLM flies to Suriname, the Boeing 777-300ER, is much heavier than the weight which the Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport allows.
“That may be one reason they say they want their planes to take off with much less weight. That could be, but I don’t know the exact reason for their decision at the moment,” said Chotkan.
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