I worry about how to get to SBH in the next few years

waynek

SBH Insider
I hesitate to post this since there is a lot of suffering in SBH and SXM with all of the damage that they have suffered and that is more important than how many of us get down to SBH for our annual fix. But it looks like SXM has been hit really bad - worse than SBH. And SXM has more of a mass-market tourism offering that I would guess will take longer to recover and rebuild than the more "boutique" style of tourism in SBH. And I bet that many of those that go to SXM may have less of an attachment to SXM than many of us have to SBH and they are willing to go to another Caribbean destination if SXM is not recovering quickly.

That makes me worry that the tourist traffic to SXM will not recover for years. If so that may mean that the number of flights going into SXM could be drastically reduced.

That may be less of an issue for those that can go through San Juan, but from Toronto that isn't a very attractive option. When I first starting going to SBH in 2004 I believe that the YYZ-SXM route only had charter flights on Saturdays. Then Air Canada added flights and Westjet added flights. In recent years Westjet has flown the YYZ-SXM route on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays which is wonderful as you can choose to stay for 9, 10 or 11 days if you wish - and we have done this quite often in recent years.

Of course the other option is to have another gateway to SBH rather than SXM. Where could that be? St Kitts? Antigua?
 
I hesitate to post this since there is a lot of suffering in SBH and SXM with all of the damage that they have suffered and that is more important than how many of us get down to SBH for our annual fix. But it looks like SXM has been hit really bad - worse than SBH. And SXM has more of a mass-market tourism offering that I would guess will take longer to recover and rebuild than the more "boutique" style of tourism in SBH. And I bet that many of those that go to SXM may have less of an attachment to SXM than many of us have to SBH and they are willing to go to another Caribbean destination if SXM is not recovering quickly.

That makes me worry that the tourist traffic to SXM will not recover for years. If so that may mean that the number of flights going into SXM could be drastically reduced.

That may be less of an issue for those that can go through San Juan, but from Toronto that isn't a very attractive option. When I first starting going to SBH in 2004 I believe that the YYZ-SXM route only had charter flights on Saturdays. Then Air Canada added flights and Westjet added flights. In recent years Westjet has flown the YYZ-SXM route on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays which is wonderful as you can choose to stay for 9, 10 or 11 days if you wish - and we have done this quite often in recent years.

Of course the other option is to have another gateway to SBH rather than SXM. Where could that be? St Kitts? Antigua?
I do not think it will take "years" for SXM to get up and running...a month or two , but not years....
 
Pirate, SXM will reopen soon for sure but Waynek is talking of tourist traffic and tourism in general. I would agree with him that it could take months or years for some hotels to reopen, meaning less tourists and number of flights to SXM considerably reduced. Also crews like air france for example stay 1 night at hotel before going back. Without hotels, how will AF operate?
 
In the week before the Irma, AF stopped a couple of times in Antigua for refuelling, which I thought was strange, but they could off load the crew in Antigua or just take them back to CDG directly.
 
When the wind is not strong enough in SXM , max take off weight has to be reduced, hence the pit stop to refuel .
Yes, I guess AF will combine Guadeloupe and SXM, with crew resting in PTP. It will also solve the issue of much lower demand for SXM. By the way it could stay like that for ever because the airbus a340 is the only one able to fly non stop to Europe and it is due to be phased out soon
 
There are several options to go to SBH,luckily.
A very popular one is through SJU and connect with tradewinds.Winair has flights on the destination too.And they will be looking for clients and will surely increase flights
Antigua is intact and should see more tourists this winter (and more flights)...Commuter and tradewinds also fly there.
Pointe a Pitre is another hub,for european tourists.And it's intact.
Air Caraibes will need passengers.Should keep prices down for tickets,helping tourism to recover at the beginning.
A major reshuffling is on the way...too soon to say what will happen
 
Where there is a will and money to be made, a way will be found. I don't know enough about the range of the Pilatus but maybe Tradewinds could fly one stop from various cities in the states to SBH? Realize capacity is tiny but it is something.
 
I think planes will be able to land at SXM sooner than expected. Anyway, if SXM has problems, there will still be the MIA >SJU> SBH option :)
 
Where there is a will and money to be made, a way will be found. I don't know enough about the range of the Pilatus but maybe Tradewinds could fly one stop from various cities in the states to SBH? Realize capacity is tiny but it is something.
Out of range for these planes and not viable financially.
But Puerto Rico,Antigua,Pointe a Pitre airports are all fully operational.
SXM airport will be back soon.Planes are landing already:Runway didn't disappear.All it takes is money..and hopefully,french and dutch governments will step up their game soon.
Airports and harbors are the priorities as they allow supply chain,crucial for all these islands,as we all know.
In SBH,both the harbor and airport are operational.
Tourists will still go on winter vacations in the area.Flights will land somewhere.It's up to winair,commuter and tradewinds to find a way of operating from those airports with more flights
 
Did Winair and Commuter's fleets of planes survive the storm?
And where were they during the storm?

I am not talking about the airport - yes, that will be up and running in a few months. What I meant that could be done for years is the resort hotels, etc that really fill up all of the flights into SXM.
 
So getting into SBH from neigbouring islands also may be an issue as we have a damaged ferry (pre-Irma) and now issues with the two main airlines serving SBH.

Speaking of the flights from Tradewinds - it sounds like there was some feuding between Bruno (President of SBH and owner of SBC) and Tradewinds in the past few years. Was that ever resolved?
 
St Barths Commuter were unhappy with Tradewind flying to locations from St. Barths that a US airline does not have the rights to do.eg Antigua. That's what I understood..but since TW are still flying and provide excellent service, I guess the problems were resolved.
 
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