Dear Editor,
I returned on a flight from St. Barths to Princess Juliana Airport on Tuesday, July 15, on
Winair flight #670, 4:20pm. I cleared Customs/Immigration in St. Barths, boarded the plane, taxied the runway and flew to SXM, disembarked, hopped on a bus to the terminal, cleared the Customs/Immigration line of arrivals, picked up my luggage from the conveyor, paid for parking and exited the airport, car pointed towards Simpson Bay. This all took a matter of 33 minutes! Congratulations to WinAir and Princess Juliana Airport for a masterful job in efficiency!
Now for the problem; I was only traveling a distance 9/10ths of a mile to my residence located on Simpson Bay and the time it took to drive from the airport to my home was 36 minutes! It took less time to fly while meeting all of the requirements than to drive from the airport to my home which is less than a mile away. This is totally ridiculous!
Government of St. Maarten, you have a real big problem here and I am amazed that NOTHING seems to be happening to correct this horrendous traffic problem on this very special and beautiful island. What are you doing now to alleviate this problem especially with the current construction of so many new condo units in Sint Maarten?
It's time to stop the lip service about this obvious issue and move on to specific action. Who is in charge of this overwhelming traffic situation? Maybe they need to be replaced because they surely are not doing their job! Island businesses cannot effectively do their jobs either when caught in all-day traffic jams.
The tourists’ arrival to SXM will decline and I hope you will fully understand that it was your failure to address and solve the issue before it was too late. Visitors are trying to escape from their hometown traffic, and not sit in it during their precious vacation time.
For an island that totally depends on tourism to support their economy, I do not see the vision behind not initiating a much-needed change. Do you really think this traffic situation is a good first impression of our island?
Sure, it’s going to be painful, but a little pain must be endured for a prosperous island to continue attracting the source of its livelihood.
Perhaps you could have conversations with other islands who have successful traffic plans in place, maybe starting with Bermuda.
Time is running out.
S.H.
Initials used at author’s request.
