WILLEMSTAD – During a special press conference organized by Curaçao Airport Partner (CAP), the new Chiew Executive Officer Johnny Anderson presented a very optimistic presentation about Curaçao’s Hato airport for the year 2023 and the future.  

The airport is performing so well in the first months of 2023 that the one-and-a-half million passenger limit can be reached. This is a cautious, but according to the CEO, a realistic forecast.  

Johnny Anderson

Scenario  

In the most optimistic scenario, Curaçao's airport will even grow to 1.7 million arriving and departing passengers.  

In his presentation, Andersen indicated that 2020 was the worst year for the airport. This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In that year less than 550,000 passengers used HATO airport. This is quite a difference compared to 2019 which saw the number of passengers reach almost 1.5 million. “The pandemic has hit us hard, but it wasn’t just us. Many airports around the world suffered during this pandemic,” said the CEO.  

Seat capacity  

The Senior Vice President Aviation Market Development  for CAP, Peggy Croes says there is an interesting diversification in the market. Previously, the vast majority came from Europe, mainly the Netherlands, but now the airlines and passengers come from different regions.  

Forty percent of passengers on Hato come or go from Europe, twenty percent come from the United States. Followed by seventeen percent of passengers to and from the other Dutch Caribbean islands.  

South America accounts for fourteen percent of all passengers, with the other eight percent accounted for by other Caribbean islands and Canada. 

For example, in the first months of 2023, the number of European passengers fell by more than forty percent. But that loss is made up by the other markets, with Canadian growth, in particular, proving to be strong. The Brazilian market is also looking very promising for the passenger traffic at the airport.