Airport:--- Commissioner of Aviation, tourism and economic affairs Frans Richardson welcomed Westjet Airline on their inaugural flight on Sunday November 1. The following is the full text of the speech delivered by the commissioner.
Allow me, on behalf of the people and government of St. Maarten, to bid a very special welcome to WestJet, on the occasion of this inaugural flight, which has just touched down at our Princess Juliana International Airport…
I wish to extend to you, particularly to our esteemed guests just arriving from Canada, a warm St. Maarten welcome.
I am pleased that the following WestJet officials could join us on this memorable occasion; they are: Ms. Janice Webster -- Vice President of Talent Management & Retention in People Department; Mr. Robert Palmer -- Manager of Public Relations and Ms. Angela Braun -- CARE Coordinator.
I am delighted with the level of commitment that we now have from WestJet.
Today, West Jet has become the first airline to provide scheduled airlift service out of Canada into St. Maarten, bringing 116 passengers aboard flight 2652.
Importance of Canadian market
The Canadian market is important to St. Maarten.
Interest for the Caribbean remains high in North America, according to the CTO, the Caribbean Tourism Organization.
With a total of nearly 2.5 million Canadian visitors last year, the Canadian tourism market accounted for a 14 percent growth overall, according to CTO figures.
Canadians are known to have been long-time supporters of the Caribbean and have nearly doubled their tourism numbers to the region since 2005, according to the CTO.
Penetration Canadian market
As Commissioner responsible for tourism, economic affairs and aviation, I was thrilled to hear, sometime ago, how bookings for flights to St. Maarten are doing extremely well. Load factors are said to already be in excess of 80% for the first 3 months of bookings.
Based on demographic data obtained from WestJet, bookings indicate the following:
60 percent of these bookings come from Toronto
13 percent from Montreal
10 percent from Calgary
7 percent from Ottawa
3 percent from Edmonton
3 percent from Vancouver
4 percent from Halifax
One can say that with WestJet, we now have the opportunity to really penetrate the Canadian market.
My goal is to steer our tourism development in a positive direction not only by our marketing efforts, but by our aggressively pursuing all opportunities to improve our tourism product.
What does regular schedule by WestJet mean for St. Maarten?
• Additional numbers to fill hotel rooms
• Additional shoppers for our stores and business establishments
• Increased revenues for the airport and handling agents.
This in turn is good news for the economy.
Figures made available by the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau, indicate total expenditures by U.S. and Canadian visitors to St. Maarten, during the first 6 months of this year amounting to over 39 million U.S. dollars!
If we look at projections now, we need to take into account an 80 percent projected load factor of seating capacity on WestJet flights.
In terms of income for St. Maarten, it would mean an increase of almost 50 percent of what we bring in annually from the Canadian market.
Every time, a WestJet flight lands here, St. Maarten earns income from:
• The sale of fuel
• Landing fees
• Passenger handling fees
• Ground handling fees
• Navigation fees
• Sita- CUTE fees
• Passenger screening fees
• Airport departure taxes
• Increased hotel room occupancy
• Increased spending at restaurants
• Increased business for taxis and car rental operators
Preliminary estimates are that the financial impact for St. Maarten would amount to some 5.5 million U.S. dollars during the months of November to April. The financial impact for the year, which is From January to December, would amount to over 10.5 million U.S. dollars.
Open skies policy
Open-skies policies will be a start to opening up and liberalizing the air travel market, giving rise to the abolition of monopolies, greater competition and potentially lower fares.
Key provisions of most of the existing civil agreements include:
No restrictions on international route rights; number of designated airlines; capacity; frequencies; and types of aircraft.
It provides for fair and equal opportunity to compete:
All carriers — designated and non-designated — of both countries may establish sales offices in the other country, and convert earnings and remit them in hard currency promptly and without restrictions. Designated carriers are free to provide their own ground-handling services — "self-handling" — or choose among competing providers.
It provides for liberal charter arrangements:
Carriers may choose to operate under the charter regulations of either country.
I look forward to the day when bilateral agreements can be signed facilitating open sky policies benefitting St. Maarten.
We need to implement changes in our aviation sector to make us even more competitive and more sustainable.
I am optimistic about our strategic location with convenient airlift from most major U.S. markets, and now from Toronto, Canada.
Commitment
The commitment of my office, the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau and that of this government of St. Maarten is that WestJet can count on us in being a true partner as we, together, embark on further promoting destination St. Maarten throughout the Canadian market.
With this in mind, I have reason to be confident that WestJet will play its role, as a new stakeholder with St. Maarten, in the further development of this island as a premiere vacation destination not only in the Caribbean, but throughout the world.
As we are now into the final quarter of 2009 and the winter travel season is beginning, we are confident that WestJet will aid St. Maarten in increasingly becoming a popular and trusted choice for Canadians seeking value from their vacation dollars.
WestJet -- St. Maarten looks forward to being partners with you!
Once again, allow me to congratulate WestJet as well as all other instances and persons, who have worked so diligently to make this inaugural flight a reality – as we celebrate the beginning of a new chapter in St. Maarten’s ongoing tourism history.
