Saba News News and Information from Saba Island, Dutch Caribbean
The site BES Reporter announces that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy has decided that the same company will continue to deliver mail on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. Minister Heleen Herbert has signed the decision granting Flamingo Express Dutch Caribbean N.V. (FXDC Post) a new ten-year concession, effective 1 January 2027. FXDC thus retains the exclusive right to deliver mail on the three islands.
A concession is a government license that gives a company the exclusive right to provide a public postal service, subject to certain quality and delivery requirements. FXDC has operated the postal service on the BES islands since 2014. The current concession will expire on 31 December 2026.
The decision goes against the advice of a study by Economisch Bureau Amsterdam (EBA), published in 2025. The bureau concluded that postal delivery in the Caribbean Netherlands structurally fails to meet quality requirements and that statutory delivery times are regularly exceeded. According to the researchers, this is partly due to logistical obstacles, such as irregular flight connections between the islands, the small market, the lack of street names and postcodes, and manual processes. In addition, postal volume has fallen by about a third since 2014.
EBA advised splitting the concession and granting one per island. The bureau also proposed introducing postcodes, particularly on Bonaire, to enable ‘community mailboxes’, and adopting a new quality framework that distinguishes between local mail, mail between the islands and international mail. According to EBA, a financial contribution from the government, linked to performance requirements, may be needed in the future. The bureau also called for more active oversight by citizens, businesses, and local authorities.
Conditions still unknown
With the new decision, however, FXDC has again been granted a concession for all three islands, from 2027 through 2036. It is still unknown which conditions or improvements are attached to the new concession and why the minister chose not to award a separate concession per island. Neither FXDC nor the ministry has yet responded to the decision.
BES Reporter
