Great Bay – St. Maarten’s commissioner in charge of aviation affairs, Frans Richardson, is very optimistic regarding the prospects for contributions to be made to St. Maarten’s tourism product, as a result of additional airlift offered by West Jet.
Commissioner Richardson met with senior executives of West Jet at the airline’s offices in Calgary, Canada, last week.
West Jet is scheduled to launch regularly scheduled service originating from Canada on November 1 upcoming.
Commissioner Richardson has disclosed that bookings for flights to St. Maarten are doing extremely well with load factors already in excess of 80% for the first 3 months.
As a result and based on the availability of fleet, West Jet may consider expanding its services to a year-round scheduled service instead of the planned initial seasonal scheduled flights.
The airline plans to commence regular service to St. Maarten, with flights via Toronto. Flight time will be approximately 4 hours, on board a Boeing 737-700 aircraft with 136 seat capacity and satellite TV service available at each seat.
West Jet will be expanding its fleet over the next 3 to 4 years and St. Maarten is expected to play a prominent role in these plans, said Commissioner Richardson.
West Jet is additionally expected to hold discussions with WINAIR on transporting passengers to surrounding destinations using St. Maarten as the hub.
The Canadian airline is meanwhile extremely interested in being updated with regards to marketing information and data regarding St. Maarten in order to further promote the destination throughout the Canadian market.
West Jet officials were impressed with the professional approach of Commissioner Frans Richardson, St. Maarten Tourist Bureau head Regina Labega as well all the parties involved in addressing and attending to their issues within such a short time frame.