Paramaribo, Suriname – A planned operational disruption for national carrier Surinam Airways (SLM) has thrown hundreds of stranded passengers into travel limbo, after the country’s civil aviation safety regulator rejected an initial request to deploy a leased replacement aircraft due to incomplete and inaccurate paperwork.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority Suriname (CASAS) released an official statement on Monday responding to widespread public coverage of SLM’s service disruptions and the airline’s push to bring in a substitute plane to repatriate passengers left stranded by the incident. In its statement, the regulator acknowledged the significant inconvenience and discomfort the disruption has caused affected travelers, and understands the urgency of finding a fast resolution to get passengers back on their journeys.
However, CASAS emphasized that as the country’s national civil aviation oversight body, it bears a statutory responsibility to enforce strict aviation safety standards across all commercial flight operations. For the agency, passenger safety must remain the top non-negotiable priority at all times, meaning every flight requiring regulatory approval must meet all applicable legal safety requirements before it can enter service.
Under Suriname’s aviation regulations, any operator seeking to deploy a leased replacement aircraft must submit all legally required documentation and operational data to CASAS for pre-approval inspection and assessment. In SLM’s case, the paperwork submitted by the airline failed to meet this standard: the submitted package was incomplete and contained incorrect data that left regulators unable to conduct a full safety verification. As a result, CASAS could not grant approval in good faith without compromising its safety mandate.
The regulator confirmed Monday afternoon that it had received the corrected documentation from SLM, allowing the paused assessment process to resume and all required safety checks to be completed. The official statement did not explicitly confirm whether final approval had already been granted to the airline as of Monday afternoon.
CASAS reiterated that it deeply regrets the difficult situation stranded passengers currently face, but made clear that it will not relax its safety oversight commitments to speed up processing, reaffirming that passenger protection will remain its core guiding principle in all regulatory decisions.