By the Caribbean Journal staff

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has announced that it will be resuming flight service to the island of St Maarten beginning Oct. 29.

The news is a significant boost for the island whose Princess Juliana airport was ravaged by Hurricane Irma.

KLM will be lowering its frequencies, however, with two weekly flights instead of four weekly flights, and the flights will stopover in Curacao.

“For years, KLM has had close ties with Sint Maarten,” said KLM CEO Pieter Elbers. “Under the current circumstances, we are certainly not about to leave the people on that island in the lurch. From 29 October, KLM will resume its flights to Sint Maarten stopping off at Curaçao along the way.”

KLM also announced it would be “substantially” increasing its flights to Curacao, with a total of three extra flights per week to the island, in addition to the seven scheduled services to Curacao each week.

Two more weekly flights will also operate to Curacao from mid-December to the end of February 2018.

That means a total of 12 flights per week between Amsterdam and Curacao in that period.

KLM will also be adding more flights between Amsterdam, Bonaire and Aruba, with an additional weekly flight during the winter season.