Princess Juliana International Airport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Princess Juliana International Airport
IATA: SXM - ICAO: TNCM
Summary
Airport type public
Operator Princess Juliana Int'l Airport Holding Company N.V.
Serves Saint Maarten
Elevation AMSL 13 ft (4 m)
Coordinates 18°2′27″N, 63°6′32″W
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
09/27 7,708 2 349 Asphalt
Approach to Princess Juliana Airport
Enlarge
Approach to Princess Juliana Airport

Princess Juliana International Airport (IATA: SXMICAO: TNCM) serves the island of Sint Maarten (also known as St Martin) in the Netherlands Antilles. The airport is famous for its short landing strip —only 2,130 metres/7,000 ft, which is barely enough for heavy jets. Because of this, the planes approach the island flying extremely low, right over Maho Beach. Countless photos of large jets flying at 10--20 m/30-60 ft over relaxing tourists at the beach have been dismissed as photoshopped many times, but are nevertheless real. For this reason as well it has become a favourite for planespotters.

The airport was started as a military airstrip in 1942. It was converted to a civilian airport in 1943. It is the second busiest airport in the Eastern Caribbean, after Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was named after Juliana of the Netherlands, the former Queen. The airport serves as a hub for Windward Islands Airways and is the major gateway for the smaller Leeward Islands, including Anguilla, Saba, St. Barthélemy and St. Eustatius.

A new, more modern terminal is currently under construction to replace the small terminal currently handling the airport's arrivals & departures. This new terminal is expected to open on November 10th, 2006, pushed back form June. The runway is also being lengthened, as part of a US$ 87 million project, now in its second phase. Phase II information, from the airport's website

[edit] Airlines

[edit] Cargo

[edit] External links

In other languages