Above: St Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport (Caribbean Journal photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport saw a 21 percent increase in transfer passengers in the first quarter, officials said this week.

St Barth was the largest connection market out of SXM Airport, with 9,600 passengers, followed by Paris-Charles de Gaulle, with 4,033 passengers and the British Virgin Islands with 1,308 passengers.

Another 1,176 passengers transferred to St Eustatius, with 1,111 connecting to Anguilla.

Officials said that the idea of a “hub” airport was to “enhance air travel and give passengers the option of more flights, more frequency and more services.”

The airport’s officials also said that it would be making it a priority to target Canadian carriers to increase passenger connections through its facility, given the almost 2 million Canadians visiting Cuba and the Dominican Republic each year combined.

The 13-gate, four-story Princess Juliana Airport handles around 1.7 million passengers each year.