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Big news for Bonaire and the rest of the Dutch Caribbean: Bonaire is getting its very own E-Flight Academy, a flight school for pilots of electric airplanes. E-Flight is a Dutch start-up that opened Europe’s first electric flight school last year at the local airport of Teuge, near to Apeldoorn in the heart of the European Netherlands. The school in Bonaire will be located at Flamingo Airport, Bonaire’s international airport, located near to the island’s capital, Kralendijk
The Dutch Caribbean as ideal growth market
As a special municipality inside the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bonaire offers plenty of potential for electric flight. Local laws and regulations are solid, and the population speaks Dutch, which is an advantage to start with. On top of that, both the local government and its people are clearly interested in sustainable developments, and electric flying can definitely be placed in that category. It connects flawlessly with the local government’s Blue Destination concept with which they want to raise awareness in the field of sustainability, for the benefit of local nature, economic development, and the preservation of local heritage and culture.
“We’ve looked at the major growth markets for electric flying”, says Merlijn van Vliet, spokesman for E-Flight, “The Caribbean has enormous potential. The distances between the islands are relatively short, which is ideal for the first-generation electric planes that are on the way, as they have a relatively limited reach of several hundred kilometers. Another advantage is the climate”, continues Van Vliet, “Contrary to the European Netherlands, the weather is almost always good [in the Dutch Caribbean]. This allows us to operate in a much more efficient manner”.
Bonaire as electric flight hub
For the moment, E-Flight is the only project in the world offering pilots the chance to get their licenses for flying electric planes. Therefore, they are not just aiming at students from the Dutch Caribbean islands to enroll at the brand-new Kralendijk academy. The company expects that plenty of students from the European Netherlands and the rest of Europe would consider taking the practical part of their studies in Bonaire. Thanks to the climate, a student can achieve the needed 45 flying hours in just a few weeks’ time on a tropical island.
E-Flight has some experience and data to back up these estimates as well. Since the inauguration of the first academy in Teuge last July, 30 students have enrolled already, and more than 2.000 electric take-offs have been realized. “We think that students from South-America and the southern United States could be interested in our program as well. Most flight schools in the region currently offer American FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) courses, while we follow the European EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency) guidelines. It’s a level above [the FAA] and slowly becoming the new standard for international aviation”, explains Van Vliet, “Those who get their license with us, can also fly normal planes, like Cessna’s, by the way”.
This year, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management will present a plan to make flying more affordable and more reliable in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Electric flights can be a natural fit for that ambition. Besides the current smaller planes, the aviation industry expects to present planes for about twenty passengers in the coming years. This will not only prove to be a huge step forward in terms of sustainable travel and energy use, but also in terms of noise pollution, as electric airplanes only produce a fraction of the noise generally associated with traditional commercial aviation.
The basis for this article was originally published on www.dossierkoninkrijksrelaties.nl in January 2022.
