SHTA members with Airport CEO Brian Mingo (front row, right).
PHILIPSBURG–The reconstruction of Princess Juliana International Airport terminal, outlooks and challenges were the focal points of a recent meeting between Airport Chief Executive Officer Brian Mingo and Sint Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA).
It is expected that the airport will be back to full capacity and functionality by December 2020, if no further challenges arise.
Mingo outlined the key challenges the airport has faced and continues to face in its recovery process – in addition to liquidity and insurance challenges, an issue most business owners can sympathize with in this post-Irma environment, debt service ratios, cost cutting without impacting personnel, the step-by-step approach towards full recovery and maximizing utilization during that process were discussed.
The airport’s recovery has been one of the key priorities for SHTA. In its vision, presented in May 2018 to Prime Minister Romeo-Marlin and Dutch government representative Hans Leijtens, SHTA ranked recovery of the airport as one of the top 10 urgent recovery priorities. The association has been pushing through all available channels, including the monthly stakeholder meetings of the airport, the urgent need to solve the financing and other hindrances the airport faces post haste.
The association’s representatives showed support for “the austere, but pragmatic recovery strategy” proposed by Mingo and recognized that accepting the proposal of the World Bank and European Investment Bank soft loan seems like the most expeditious and responsible way forward, as it is improbable that a better financing solution will be made available in the immediate, especially given current constraints with debt service and existing lender agreements.
The association noted that it is also unrealistic to expect any entity to provide you with US $100 million in financing without insisting on conditions of usage or oversight.
Given the reputation of Royal Schiphol Group as a premier international airport, it was widely agreed that integrating their expertise alongside our local expertise would indeed prove advantageous to the airport, not only in recovery efforts, but also in many other areas, to improve synergies, and better leverage economies of scale by being able to more rapidly absorb best practices not already engaged.
SHTA underlined the importance of continuing to improve the customer experience as the recovery efforts move forward and to continue to tackle first impressions for our arriving guests. It was important for SHTA to learn that the process of reconstruction will allow more areas to come online over time, and that there is not just one step from today’s operations to December 2020; and that the Jetways, and check-in areas have top priority for returning to use.
It was stressed to view passenger arrival and departure areas to make sure that these areas were upgraded and maintained.
The United States customs and immigration pre-clearance service was also discussed, its importance for Sint Maarten and how there are limited resources to have it included in the initial phase, which, now 17 months after Irma, has not started yet.
The association stressed ensuring the return on investment for US pre-clearance for the airport as well as the island as a whole, as it is an expensive addition to the service offering, which may or may not increase the St. Maarten visitor satisfaction level sufficiently for the annually recurring cost.
The association believes that our airport should be our gateway and that it is not necessarily in the island’s best interest to move visitors on and off of it as quickly as possible but to facilitate long and enjoyable visits.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/85421-mingo-shta-discuss-airport-reconstruction
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