Update - Flights From Canada to SXM

KevinS

Senior Insider
From today's St Maarten Daily Herald:

http://thedailyherald.com/index.php...ed-from-canada&catid=1:islands-news&Itemid=54

More direct flights offered from Canada Wednesday, 13 August 2014 01:20

PHILIPSBURG--There have been positive developments in the Canadian tourism market to St. Maarten, including a number of extra direct available flights through Air Canada, Sunwing and Air Transat.

The news follows that of 2013 being the best year to date in terms of arrivals from Canada, and the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau securing a booth at the International Travel and Tourism Show SITV in downtown Montréal.

Air Canada has added a second weekly flight from Toronto for 13 weeks in the high season; it now flies on Tuesdays in addition to Saturdays.

Sunwing has added a new flight from Ottawa that will fly on Mondays during the high season. This is in addition to its four weekly flights on Thursday and Sundays from both Toronto and Montréal from late fall to spring.

Air Transat has also added a new flight from Toronto on Sundays for the high season in addition to its weekly high-season flight from Montréal. Years ago, the airline flew from Toronto to St. Maarten year-round, but it cut the flight schedule down to one weekly high season flight from Montréal shortly after Sunwing initiated flights to the island.

WestJet also offers direct flights, three weekly from Toronto and one weekly from Montréal.

"We are very excited about the growing support from our airline and tour operator partners in Canada; 2013 was a record-breaking year for arrivals from Canada to St. Maarten, and this additional air lift positions us well to continue this trend," said Toronto-based St. Maarten Tourist Office representative Catherine Pentiricci.

"Consumer and travel trade marketing activities in Canada are critical to ensure that the planes fly full. For this reason, we were happy that participation in the Montréal Travel Show was secured.

"There are many more sales activities and shows that we hope to participate in, in addition to the daily support we provide by phone and e-mail to consumers and the Canadian travel trade. We will continue to work closely with the STB [St. Maarten Tourist Bureau – Ed.] to make this happen."

Canadian passenger arrivals to SXM Airport increased from 40,426 in 2012 to an all-time high of 46,300 in 2013, an increase of 14.5 per cent.
 
Sadly the additional AC flight on Tuesdays is only for 13 weeks in high season and it arrives (if it's on time) at 4:15 p.m.
 
Thanks, Kevin.

FYI - for our December stay, the only direct flight from Toronto on a Thursday that arrived before 4pm was Sunwing.
 
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