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.[2]
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