In the first eight months of its existence, the Makana ferry has transported more passengers be­tween St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Saba than the air­lines have.

Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations and Digi­tisation Alexandra van Huffelen reported this fact in an update that she sent to the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Friday in preparation for the handling of the 2023 Kingdom Relations budget this week.

The state secretary had promised that she would inform the First and Second Chambers about the results of the evaluation of the Dutch government-subsidized Makana ferry connection between the three islands.

That evaluation will take place at the end of 2022, af­ter which the Dutch Parliament will be informed, which should be in the first quarter of 2023. Figures confirmed that the ferry carried 9,090 passengers between Decem­ber 2021 and July 2022, while 7,625 passengers were transported by aircraft.

“This shows that the ferry is used more frequently than the airplane. The ferry connection is still dependent on the subsidy to keep it operational,” Van Huffelen stated.

The Daily Herald