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?
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?