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Bonaire Flamingo Airport X
Aerosoft GmbH 2015
Introduction
Bonaire is a small island located south in the Caribbean sea, just north
of Venezuela. The island is the second largest island in the ABC-group
(Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao) of which Bonaire is the only island being a
special municipality with The Netherlands, while Aruba and Curaçao
are self governing.
Bonaire covers an area of approximately 294km² (including a nearby
uninhabited island to the west called Klein Bonaire).
The island is well known for it‘s clear waters and coral reefs making it
a destination for divers from all over the world. As well as tourism one
of the other major industries is salt production, throughout the most
southern tip of the island you can see a large grid of ponds filled with
sea water, when the water has evaporated sea salt is collected before
the process repeats.
Bonaire only has two towns, Kralendijk and Rincon. Kralendijk
beeing the capital and the largest of the two. There have been many
other settlements throughout the island, but all of these have been
abandoned.
History of the area
Alonso de Ojeda made landfall in Curaçao and a neighboring island
(most likely Bonaire) in 1499. When the Spanish arrived in the area
the Caquetio Indians had already been inhabiting the island for quite
some time, in records from the Spanish expeditions it‘s said that
the Caquetio tribe were tall as giants, so the island of Curaçao was
appropriately named Giants Island.
The Spanish soon decided that the islands were of no use and the
local Caquetio people living on the islands were forcibly moved to
Santa Domingo to work in copper mines.
When a new ABC-Island commander was appointed things started to
change. Juan de Ampies had some of the local population brought
back from Santa Domingo and started importing domesticated animals
like horses, pigs and donkeys (The later of which still holds a large role
in modern Bonaire).
The Spanish settlers mostly lived in Rincon, since the city was less
prone to attacks by Privateers and Pirates do to its location inland.
In 1633 the Dutch lost the island of St. Maarten to the Spanish after
the eight year war. The Dutch then retalliated by attacking the ABC-
Islands and conquiring Bonaire in 1636. Fort Oranje, which still stands
today, was built by the Dutch 1639.
During the Colonial era Bonaire emerged as a plantation, while the
neighboring island of Curaçao became a hub for slavery. Throughout
Bonaire small stone huts built to house slave labors can still be seen.
Bonaire has been under British rule as well, first from 1800 to 1803
and then from 1807 to 1816 while the Napoleonic Wars ravaged
Europe. Bonaire was returned to the Netherlands in the Angelo-Dutch
Treaty from 1814.
Even in modern times Bonaire has a strong tie to the Netherlands and
chose be a special municipality with the Netherlands while many of
the old colonies chose self governing.
Flamingo International Airport
Bonaire’s first airport was built in 1936, it was located between
Kralendijk and Rincon. During World War 2 American troops were
dispatched to Bonaire in 1943 and the small airport was not large
enough to handle that kind of activity. The plans for a new airport
were then set in motion and construction began in December of 1943.
The new airport was opened in 1945 and was called “Flamingo
Airport”.