Dutch Antilles Express was an airline of the Dutch country of Curaçao. It operated high-frequency scheduled services in the Dutch Caribbean to United States, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Haiti, and Suriname. Its main base was at Hato International Airport, Curaçao.

Due to an escalating debt from poor market conditions, the government of Curaçao stepped in on May 31, 2011, to keep the airline in the air. The airline has been purchased from Arnold Leonora by the Curaçao government for a cash injection sum of two injections of 1.5m Guilders (approx US$838,000 each).

In August 2013, the company's management and employees approached the Curacao government through various departments for a new loan of 5m Guilders (approx. US$2.8 million) to, among other items, pay employee salaries outstanding from July 2013. The appeal for the loan was denied by the Curacao Parliament on August 16, 2013. The Court of First Instance of Curaçao declared the local airline Dutch Antilles Express (DAE) bankrupt on August 30, 2013.

At the time of its bankruptcy, the airline operated two aircraft Fokker 100, one ATR-42, one ATR-72 and three McDonnell Douglas MD-83 wet-leased from Falcon Air Express. There were plans to eventually replace the Fokker 100s with newer A319-100s and A320-200s.

The airline started operations with a single ATR 42 in 2003 as BonairExel (part of the Exel Aviation Group) and soon expanded to encompass most of the Dutch Antilles and Aruba. Although an Embraer ERJ 145 was used on the Bonaire-Aruba flights, the aircraft was soon disposed of again, returning to Air Exel. Although BonairExel flew its aircraft in the Exel color scheme; operated with Air Exel aircraft; and flew with Air Exel cabin staff; the airline was wholly owned by a Dutch millionaire residing on Bonaire, and operated simply as a franchise carrier. As the local market was rather small, a subsidiary was formed on Curaçao, named Curaçao Exel. Dutch Caribbean Airlines (DCA) declared bankruptcy not long after. Exel Aviation noticed that the Caribbean airlines were very profitable, and set up its own Aruba Exel, causing distress amongst the other franchise carriers.

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