SXM Local News: Air France Nonstop Resumes March 2018, Curfew Ends, ‘Today’ Newspaper Shuts Down
Sint Maarten is coming alive, my friends. Tomorrow is the first day since Hurricane Irma that commercial flights will land at Princess Juliana International Airport. Tourism officials will be at the airport to welcome travelers (read more here) as they step foot on the island with the message that Sint Maarten is open.
Both American and Delta flights will arrive in Sint Maarten tomorrow. American’s flight will arrive from Miami at 3:10 PM and is the first of their special $99 one-way capped rates through October (read more here). Delta’s flight will arrive at 1:35 PM coming from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
While service from the United States is set to begin as soon as the airport opens, international service from Europe will continue to be delayed.
KLM will begin offering service to SXM via Curaçao beginning on October 29 (read more). Air France announced today that they will not offer any direct service from Paris (CDG) to SXM until March 24, 2018. However, Air Caraibes will offer direct, non-stop CDG-SXM service beginning on October 28.
Curfew update
On Friday, October 6, the Sint Maarten Council of Ministers announced an end to the State of Emergency for the Dutch side of the island. With that announcement also came notice that the curfew has ended as well.
The expectation is that French Saint Martin will be lifting their curfew any day now, but I have not seen or heard any official word yet.
‘Today’ newspaper ends circulation
After 17 years in circulation, the Today newspaper announced on Friday, October 6, 2017, that the printed version of the paper would end. The Today offices sustained heavy damage and the costs to repair the Philipsburg-based facilities are too high.
The owner, Finance Minister Richard Gibson, Sr., made the announcement to the Today staff from the Bute Hotel on Friday. It’s unclear whether the Today News website will continue to operate.
Editor-in-Chief, Hilbert Haar, wrote an article with the announcement that ran on the Today website on Sunday, October 8.
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