Private company

DutchCaribbeanExel

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Airline of the Netherlands (2004–2005)

DutchCaribbeanExel was an airline with its head office in Amsterdam. The airline connected from the Netherlands to the Netherlands Antilles and was based at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

2004Founded1
DutchCaribbeanExel Boeing 767-300ER Hoppe-1
Photo: Andreas Hoppe, GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons5

DutchCaribbeanExel was an airline with its head office in Amsterdam. The airline connected from the Netherlands to the Netherlands Antilles and was based at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.2

The story

The airline was established in 2004 and started operations on 15 July 2004. It was wholly owned by ExelAviation Group. The airline folded in early February 2005 when the group declared bankruptcy.

The ExelAviation Group started to disintegrate in late 2004, soon after the takeover of DutchBird; when failed Air Holland (declared bankrupt with €30M in debt) was investigated for alleged laundering of drug money and arrests were made, it put HollandExel in negative publicity as well.

In February 2005, HollandExel filed for the Dutch equivalent of Chapter 11 and its main client, tour operator TUI Netherlands invested millions to keep the airline flying. Two months later, TUI Netherlands continued HollandExel under new management, operating as ArkeFly and the fleet of aircraft plus some 400 employees moved to the new company.

DutchCaribbeanExel would later, together with its sister airline, HollandExel, be taken over by TUI AG and renamed Arkefly Curaçao.

From Wikipedia’s article on DutchCaribbeanExel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Products and brands

Destinations

When it ceased operations in January 2005, DutchCaribbeanExel operated the following services:

Fleet

The DutchCaribbeanExel fleet consisted of the following aircraft (at April 2005):

From Wikipedia’s article on DutchCaribbeanExel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. Feb 2005Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 2004Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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