Sint Maarten/Saint Martin

摘要

The island of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin in the Dutch Netherlands Antilles is the smallest island in the world divided between any two major countries, in this case Holland and France. Located on the Dutch side of the island and owned by the island's Government, the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE), handles about 1.75 million passengers annually. It is the main airport serving the eastern Caribbean island although there is a smaller airport on the northern, French (Saint Martin) side, known as Esperance, which is served by some of the inter-island regional operators. PJIAE handles numerous daily jet aircraft flights from Europe, the United States, and South America, as well as dozens of turboprop flights from other surrounding islands, both in the Dutch Antilles and in neighbouring groups. Constructed in 1943 by United States Marines, the airport's original purpose was as a base to counter World War Two attacks on allied merchant ships by German submarines. In the 1950s and 1960s, traffic increased as the island became a tourist destination. The current terminal was built to accommodate 1.2 million passengers per year but by the early 1990s the airport had reached its saturation point. In 2001, a total of 1,753,204 passengers was handled (1,576,308 passengers in 2000), and the airport authorities predict a rise in passenger traffic to about 2.5 million by 2014. Towards the end of the 1990s, a ten-year, three-phase, multimillion-dollar improvement plan was unveiled to meet the airport's growth demands.