Hi folks,

Just curious as to the current status of SXM, other nearby airports and recovery efforts in the area around them. Is much progress being made or is there so much damage to the area it will still take years for the beach to be rebuilt and tourism to grow again. The area still needs a lot of help to recover, but I hope there is at least some change for the better. On an older thread it says that SXM was reopened in October, but that would likely have been for military and aid flights only.

Thanks for the info.

SXM is running albeit out of a temporary terminal the last time I was there. I'm not sure of the status of if and when the main terminal will be up and running. Hotel capacity is increasing but some hotels like the Sonesta don't plan to be back up until after the summer. I personally haven't stayed overnight there in a while, they are telling us late 2018 or even 2019 until my airline resumes overnighting crews there.

The beach is back at Maho btw... it ebbs and flows naturally. While the Hurricane obviously destroyed it, the fall weather would usually do that anyways.

Terminal reconstruction is ongoing at SXM with commercial pax using temporary structures.

Update from last week:

http://smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-marti ... pdate.html

Wow .... 18 months to fix the roof, alone ...

^^
It said 18 weeks by the way.

Clean up, electrical probably has to be redone, repairing the runway equipment, total rebuild of the roof up to stronger wind standards, new interior as the old ones are ruined,

It's amazing how fast it is going and how fast the island is getting on it's feet. Hope the tourist come back soon.

The cruise ships are back so the stay over tourism should be back by the summer.

Thank you for the information. Thank God we live in such a time of human history where we can see repairs and recovery from such a devastating storm so quickly.

When is the terminal repair/upgrades for SXM scheduled to be completed?

Is there any data on what percentage of hotels are back open now and what will be back open in the summer, fall?

Also, what non-stop flights from the US are coming back for the 2018-19 season? I did a quick check on UA and see ORD-SXM, IAD-SXM and EWR-SXM loaded again which is great news! I hope they stay as we plan to goto to SBH in April 2019 and are somewhat dependent on SXM. St. Barts seems to be recovering relatively quickly but access to the island is more difficult due to the lack of flights into SXM.

St. Martin After Irma: The Beaches Are Dazzling but There’s Work to Do

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/t ... l?referer=

Came across this article last week, sounds like St Maarten is making slow but steady progress.

United787 wrote:

I hope they stay as we plan to goto to SBH in April 2019 and are somewhat dependent on SXM. St. Barts seems to be recovering relatively quickly but access to the island is more difficult due to the lack of flights into SXM.

St. Barth was not hit as hard as St. Martaan and so is coming back much more quickly. You can still get there via SXM but it's a bit more of an adventure from what I'm reading. I'm going to try to venture back there in January 2019. I follow this blog which does a pretty good job detailing the island's progress: http://pegs-blog.stbarth.com/

Does anyone (a dispatcher? a scheduler?) have any idea when UA's EWR-SXM and IAD-SXM will return to Sint Maarten?

kgaiflyer wrote:

Does anyone (a dispatcher? a scheduler?) have any idea when UA's EWR-SXM and IAD-SXM will return to Sint Maarten?

Yes. They provided an update to Caribbean flying yesterday.

We reinstated daily service to BQN (Aguadilla, Puerto Rico) from EWR in March, and we continue to ramp up toward normal service at SJU (San Juan, Puerto Rico). Currently, we offer twice-daily service from EWR (including daily widebody service) to SJU and daily flights to SJU from IAD, IAH and ORD.

Along with SJU and BQN, we expect to resume weekend service from EWR to SXM (St. Maarten) and from multiple hubs to STT (St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands) on April 14. On June 7 we plan to add daily flights from IAD to STT.

I took a cruise to St. Maarten about a month ago. Probably a few things have changed since even then but the island was still in a pretty sorry state overall. Orient Beach is basically gone. Grand Case is pretty much destroyed except for a handful of buildings. (And a couple of the LOLOs there are open and desperate for business.) The airport terminal still looked heavily damaged a month ago, not sure how much progress they've made since. But there were big holes in the roof, walls, etc. It didn't look like much had been done.

The big hotels near the airport are in the process of being torn apart to be rebuilt.

Maho Beach was partially rebuilt, but not fully. And it was kind of sad to see a giant crowd of people gathering to watch a Learjet land. But there weren't a lot of other arrivals or departures.

Certain tourist areas, like Philipsburg and Maho Beach, are more or less open for business. But others are nowhere close, and there is still a *lot* of damage all over the island.

Updates on when AF and KL plan to return?

LAX772LR wrote:

Updates on when AF and KL plan to return?

KLM is operating as we speak twice weekly.

I will be in Sint Maarten and Anguilla during the first week of August and am really curious to see how it is doing and how much will be done between now and then.

DL just added back Saturday-only service on JFK-SXM starting in November.

[*]

michman wrote:

DL just added back Saturday-only service on JFK-SXM starting in November.

I heard that as well but do you have a source for me?

LAX772LR wrote:

Updates on when AF and KL plan to return?

AF is weekly from CDG, 2x weekly from 20 June, 5x weekly from 29 October, operated by the 332.

TX is weekly from ORY, 2x weekly from 7 November, operated by the 332.

KL is 2x weekly from AMS, 3x weekly from 28 October, operated by the 332.

gunnerman wrote:

LAX772LR wrote:

Updates on when AF and KL plan to return?

AF is weekly from CDG, 2x weekly from 20 June, 5x weekly from 29 October, operated by the 332.

TX is weekly from ORY, 2x weekly from 7 November, operated by the 332.

KL is 2x weekly from AMS, 3x weekly from 28 October, operated by the 332.

Thank you. All still nonstops?

All nonstops with scheduled flight times a little over 9hrs.

gunnerman wrote:

LAX772LR wrote:

Updates on when AF and KL plan to return?

AF is weekly from CDG, 2x weekly from 20 June, 5x weekly from 29 October, operated by the 332.

TX is weekly from ORY, 2x weekly from 7 November, operated by the 332.

KL is 2x weekly from AMS, 3x weekly from 28 October, operated by the 332.

Why did AF change to 332 instead of 343? Can a 332 make it non-stop? I thought KL had a stop before going all the way to AMS

For up to date info on the overall state of the Island, including restaurants, flight schedules, hotels and so much more, the below links will come in handy.

https://www.sxmstrong.com/sxm-flight-tr ... formation/

https://www.sxmstrong.com/category/hote ... ants-bars/

SHOWME Caribbean Set to Release Post-Irma 360 Degree Imagery of Entire Island of Saint Martin

https://www.sxmstrong.com/2018/04/04/sh ... nt-martin/

Damage to the Westin Dawn Beach which still hasn't begun reconstruction

https://www.sxmstrong.com/2018/01/18/ex ... ach-hotel/

Balloonchaser wrote:

[*]

michman wrote:

DL just added back Saturday-only service on JFK-SXM starting in November.

I heard that as well but do you have a source for me?

For just you? No. Maybe for everyone.

olba wrote:

Why did AF change to 332 instead of 343?

Most likely answer is reduced demand

olba wrote:

Can a 332 make it non-stop?

Of course it can, else they wouldn't be doing it....

olba wrote:

I thought KL had a stop before going all the way to AMS

They didn't have to, they chose to.

United787 wrote:

Also, what non-stop flights from the US are coming back for the 2018-19 season? I did a quick check on UA and see ORD-SXM, IAD-SXM and EWR-SXM loaded again which is great news! I hope they stay as we plan to goto to SBH in April 2019 and are somewhat dependent on SXM. St. Barts seems to be recovering relatively quickly but access to the island is more difficult due to the lack of flights into SXM.

Why not just fly Tradewind thru SJU? TJ had some of the first flights back into SBH after the storm...

olba wrote:

gunnerman wrote:

LAX772LR wrote:

Updates on when AF and KL plan to return?

AF is weekly from CDG, 2x weekly from 20 June, 5x weekly from 29 October, operated by the 332.

TX is weekly from ORY, 2x weekly from 7 November, operated by the 332.

KL is 2x weekly from AMS, 3x weekly from 28 October, operated by the 332.

Why did AF change to 332 instead of 343? Can a 332 make it non-stop? I thought KL had a stop before going all the way to AMS

The SXM market is not so large as to justify a 275-seat quadjet when a 208-seat twinjet is a whole lot easier to fill and cheaper to operate.

LAX772LR wrote:

olba wrote:

Why did AF change to 332 instead of 343?

Most likely answer is reduced demand

olba wrote:

Can a 332 make it non-stop?

Of course it can, else they wouldn't be doing it....

olba wrote:

I thought KL had a stop before going all the way to AMS

They didn't have to, they chose to.

Not sure that is correct. At least for the 744, 7200 feet of runway would not handle transatlantic fuel loads, hence the stop in Curacao. Smaller aircraft can do non-stop of course.

sgbroimp wrote:

Not sure that is correct. At least for the 744, 7200 feet of runway would not handle transatlantic fuel loads, hence the stop in Curacao. Smaller aircraft can do non-stop of course.

Well first, aircraft size has nothing to do with it, performance specs do.
An A380 for example, will outperform most smaller aircraft on a short runway any day, just due to its massive proportional wing.

Second, SXM's runway is 7546. Rough estimates: at that length, a GE-powered 744 at sea level can get up to ~340T in TOW; meaning even at MZFW, it'd still have just about enough to do an 8-9hr eastbound TATL crossing.

And of course they could easily extend that, just by lightening the load.

KL *chose* to pack it to the gills (can't blame them) via a 1-stop, they didn't *have* to.

This can give you a "taste" of SXM. http://www.mahobeachcam.com/