Princess Juliana International Airport Commercial Director Michiel Parent, during his presentation at the St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) Mixer on Thursday evening.
PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten’s airport is experiencing its busiest year yet, with passenger numbers surpassing pre-Hurricane Irma records and a wave of new airlines and destinations strengthening the island’s global connectivity.
This was the central message delivered by Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) Commercial Director Michiel Parent during a presentation at the St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) mixer on Thursday evening. The event, hosted for SHTA members, highlighted the airport’s performance and outlook heading into the high season 2025-2026.
Parent said 663,000 passengers had passed through PJIA in the first eight months of 2025, compared to 600,000 over the same period in 2024. The figure also surpassed the island’s previous record year, 2016, when 645,000 passengers were registered.
“We are not only back – we are busier than ever,” Parent told the audience. During the presentation the audience was teased with a slide that showed PJIA could be approaching as many as 1.8 million passenger movements in the near term, a figure that, if achieved, would represent the airport’s busiest year on record.
For the upcoming winter schedule, 30 airlines will serve 43 markets, offering a combined 1.4 million seats. Among them are new carriers such as Z Air, Contour Airlines, Air Caraïbes, and Southwest Airlines, with the latter set to begin service in April 2026. New destinations are also being added, including Montserrat, Paris Orly, and Baltimore, expanding St. Maarten’s reach to new travel markets.
Several existing airlines are ramping up their service to the island. Air Canada will expand its Toronto flights to five weekly and Montreal to four. JetBlue is launching new Fort Lauderdale service with four weekly flights and will increase its Boston service to daily. American Airlines is boosting its Philadelphia schedule to daily while adding a weekly Chicago O’Hare flight, and WestJet will increase its Toronto operations to six flights per week.
Parent emphasized that the airport is not only strengthening links with its traditional North American and European gateways but is also looking further afield. Growth opportunities in South America, particularly Brazil and Colombia, are considered vital to offset seasonality and sustain traffic year-round. Meanwhile, European expansion beyond France and the Netherlands is under review, with the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland on the radar.
The airport is also investing in community-focused initiatives, including the SXM Paws ceremony this weekend, the annual Breast Cancer Walk on October 26, and a “Leave the Seashells on the Shore” campaign in partnership with the Nature Foundation to discourage removal of shells from local beaches.
Thursday’s mixer brought together hospitality and trade representatives who welcomed the upbeat projections. With airline capacity climbing, new markets opening, and a record year of passenger movements in sight, industry stakeholders expressed optimism that St. Maarten is set for one of its strongest winter tourism seasons in years.
