the national carrier Surinam Airways (SLM) due to the SLM’s failure to hand over the passenger safety fee. “We have been waiting for those payments for a long time. It even reached the point where we filed a lawsuit against the SLM. The judge ruled in our favor and ordered the SLM to make the payments but the SLM stil has not carried out the instructions of the court,” said the director who explained that this delay in payments has had a huge impact on the operations of Casas. The SLM currently owes Casas more than 2 million American dollars. “This problem has existed for several years and worsens the financial situation of our organization.” The SLM reportedly stopped transferring money to Casas in 2019. The passenger has been drastically raised in the past couple of years. Times of Suriname recently reported that each passenger has to pay a passenger fee of $6 but the fee has actually been raised to $12. Despite this raise the SLM refuses to give Casas its money. “SLM’s debt to Casas has risen to more than $2 million. With each flight the debt keeps rising. This has huge consequences for our ability to make investments,” said the director. There have been many talks with the SLM regarding these payments but the SLM has repeatedly failed to keep its word. The top executive at Casas pointed out that the Ministry of Transportation, Communications and Tourism (TCT) also took measures to compel the SLM to tranfer the money but that the SLM refuses to budge. . “The money is crucial to our operations. We have been faced with a serious shortage of qualified personnel. Without these funds we cannot make the necessary investments which has direct consequences for the safety and efficiency of the aviation sector in  Suriname.”