Business View Caribbean | August 2022

53 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 8 across the globe. “They sat and thought about starting as an FBO because at that time Curacao had fairly good business with Venezuela. There were a lot of people coming down, especially for shopping,” recalls CATS Group owner and CEO Soenita Oedjaghir. “There was a big distance before they came to the commercial building and that’s why these two persons started to look for permission to start with a service, and more than that, with an FBO.” Oedjaghir started with the company soon after, using her passion for aviation to help the pilots run the business. Soon after, Mr. Torres took Oedjaghir aside and offered to let her buy his shares of the company. “He said, ‘Listen, you should be a shareholder with the company because you are doing so much more this year for the company and you know how to tackle most of the problems’,” Oedjaghir recalls. “I said why not? Because I love aviation, I love to have challenges. So he sold his share to me.” Challenges are Oedjaghir’s speciality and she’s faced many. The first was the devaluation of the Venezuelan bolivar, which cut into the traffic coming into the region. And there have been several more, not the least of which include the COVID-19 pandemic that brought air traffic to a halt. But no matter the trial, Oedjaghir has led CATS Group through it all and they’ve come out each time stronger than ever. “It was a lot of challenges, a lot of ups and downs, but the business was still growing,” she says. “With aviation, it’s not just that you are climbing the mountain, most of the time things can happen that you don’t expect. But if you have passion, Service is our #1 priority! For more information visit curoil.com CURACAO A I R TERMINAL SERV I CES GROUP