Home porting to boost economy

https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/homeporting-could-bring-in-52-million-in-14-weeks

This is a big deal for SXM and great economic news. Hopefully things go smoothly, especially with the airport.

As much as I want the island we all love see this badly needed income, based on my April visit I just don't know how the airport can deal with the additional flights it will take to get 1000-1500 cruise passengers on the island. Especially if it's a Saturday or Sunday deal, as it took us nearly 3 hours to clear immigration on our trip back in April for example with just the current flight schedule. The Covid test inspection happened while we were in the queue and had no impact on the wait.

I welcome the potential of additional flight choices and seats as an upside, but unless something changes quickly I don't see how they can pull it off. We waited on the tarmac a good 10 or 15 minutes for the first bus to take us to the terminal as several other flights including Air France were also just arriving. Luggage transferred straight to the boat? Cruise passengers pre-cleared at departure port? It's going to take some creative thinking. Hopefully, many of the homeport cruisers will come a few days before, stay a few days after and spend some money at hotels and restaurants, rental cars etc.

Cheers!

I agree with you that the airport could be the big bottleneck in this situation. Frankly, I was shocked when the cruise line did not set up charter air to SXM, which also would include separate immigration facilities for them, and separate baggage handling. We have not flown on the weekend for a very long time, because of crowds at the airport, and they could be totally out of hand. I will say that I do think that a lot of people will be coming in at least a day or two early, so the crowds will be spread out a bit more, at least on the inbound flights. Leaving from SXM on a Saturday I think will be a real nightmare...

A thought on COVID and Ministers, first with a quote from the Daily Herald article linked in the first post in this thread:

"The Daily Herald asked De Weever whether Royal Caribbean Group was concerned about the island’s rising COVID-19 numbers, and whether it had threatened to pull out of the homeporting agreement if cases continued to increase.

“The threats have always been there, that if St. Maarten was rampant with COVID-19, not only would our homeporting [partner – Ed.] not want to be here, but visitors also wouldn’t want to come,” said De Weever. “St. Maarten has been lucky. … We have not experienced this significant surge that we saw in our neighbouring islands, in our sister islands.”

OK, so if COVID is not "rampant", and if there is no "significant surge", then why are bars and restaurants being forced to close at 11PM?

(11PM makes no difference to me. At 11PM my only concern is if I am already sleep, or if I am still awake.)

GREAT point.

Because cases are rising.