Well, it’s in the top 10 History Channel list – but it’s more ‘enticing’ than dangerous!
Named after Dutch Royalty, Princess Juliana International Airport should really be ‘St. Maarten & St. Martin airport’ as it serves both sides of the island and has Dutch and French international carriers KLM and Air France serving from ‘mainland’ Europe and AA, Continental and US Airways from North America.
A long way from dangerous, it is the excitement – and often disbelief – that is the key ingredient at St Maarten Airport. To completely understand you need to be sat on the beach at the start of the runway when a jumbo 747 comes into land! All 900,000 lbs of it just 30 feet over your head!
The arrival of planes here is quickly becoming an eighth wonder of the world and a main sightseeing attraction in St Maarten. Even cruise passengers who’ve watched YouTube videos of planes landing, grab a taxi and dash over to Sunset beach bar at peak landing hours when their ship berths.
Simply because of the fascination of planes landing in such a dramatic way, nearer to you than at any other airport in the world, Sunset Beach Bar at the end of the runway has been voted the #3 beach bar in the world.
And it’s not difficult to understand when you consider a few cold beers, a generous lunch and the anticipation of a dramatic parade of planes of all sizes arriving and taking off only yards away from you – and all the noise you get from roaring jet engines, the blasts blowing people (and sometimes awkwardly parked jeeps) off the beach and the astounding photos and videos that visitors can capture and amaze their friends with.
Plane-watching is not just for enthusiasts in St Maarten – it is a necessity for any visitor, especially when you realize that you yourself just arrived in the same dramatic fashion – just feet over other peoples’ heads, flying over the beach.
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