AviationGeeks.com - Princess Juliana International Airport

Princess Juliana International Airport serves the Dutch part of St. Maarten, a small island in the Netherlands Antilles located in the Caribbean Sea. The airport has an annual average of 1.6 million passengers, 200 daily flights and about 1,000 employees. 

Photo by Timo Breidenstein

Name: Princess Juliana International Airport

IATA Code: XSM

ICAO Code: TNCN

Type: Public

Location: Simpson Bay, St. Maarten

Serves: St. Martin

Elevation: 4 meters (13 feet)

Number of runways: 1

Length of runway(s): 2,180 meters (7,407 feet)

Number of Terminals: 1

Annual flights: 62,627

Annual passenger traffic: 1,625,964

Photo by Szabo Gabor used with permission

Princess Julian International Airport began as a small military base in 1942. A year later, in 1943, the runway was made available for public aircrafts and became the first public airport in that area of the Caribbean. In 1964, the airport was relocated and the first terminal building was built along with control tower. The airport was then renovated in 1985.

From 1998, the airport authorities have made extensive improvements to the airport facilities. The airport now has a state of the art control tower and new radar facilities. In 2006, the new 27,000 sq meter terminal was opened. The new terminal has 42 check-in desks, 8 transit-desks and 11 boarding-gates. In addition, the new terminal has over 40 shops and several restaurants / fast food places.

Photo by Timo Breidenstein used with permission

Due to the airport´s close proximity to Maho Beach, it has become a plane spotter´s paradise. The runway is fairly short so pilots have to touch down at the very beginning of the runway, flying just over the beach as they approach. This has made the Maho beach very popular by aircraft photographers.

©Art Brett - Photovation.Net used with permission

Princess Juliana airport has about 200 daily flights, both scheduled and chartered.

The following Airlines offer scheduled flights to and from St. Maartin:

Air Antilles Express (Guadeloupe)

Air Canada (Toronto)

Air Caraibes (Guadeloupe, Haiti, Paris)

Air France (Guadeloupe, Paris)

Air Transat (Montreal)

American Airlines (Miami, New York, San Juan)

Aserca Airlines (Caracas)

CanJet Airlines (Montreal, Toronto)

Caribbean Airlines (Barbados, Kingston, Port of Spain)

Continental Airlines (New Jersey)

Corsairfly (Guadeloupe, Paris)

Delta (Atlanta)

Dutch Antilles Express (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Santo Domingo)

Gol Transportes Aéreos (Manaus, Sao Paulo)

Insel Air (Curacao, Haiti, Miami, San Juan, Santo Domingo)

JetBlue Airways (Boston, New York)

KLM (Amsterdam, Curacao)

LIAT (Antigua, Barbados, Nevis, Saint Croix, Saint Kitts, Saint Thomas, San Juan, Tortola)

St Barth Commuter (Saint Barthelemy)

Spirit Airlines (Fort Lauderdale)

Take Air (Dominica)

Sun Country Airlines (Minneapolis)

United Airlines (Chicago, Washington)

US Airways (Charlotte, Philadelphia)

WestJet (Toronto)

Winair (Antigua, Dominica, Nevis, Saba, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Sint Eustatius, Santo Domingo)

There are also several charter and cargo flights operated to Princess Juliana.

Photo by Timo Breidenstein used with permission

There have only been 2 major accidents at Princess Juliana. First was the DC-9 crash in 1970 and the second was the Twin Otter crash in 1972.

2^nd of May, 1970 - ALM flight 980, from New York JFK International Airport to Princess Juliana International Airport, St. Maarten, crashed into the ocean in bad weather killing 22 of the 57 passengers in addition to one crew member. The cause was found to be fuel exhaustion do to several attempts to land the aircraft. The aircraft was not found.

21^st of December, 1972 – Air France Twin Otter crashed into the ocean on route from Guadeloupe to St. Maartin killing all 11 passengers on board along with both pilots. 

Photo by Mikhail Gorichev used with permission