Description & Facts: Phase one included a new aircraft parking apron in the area of a filled-in pond west of the terminal building, which has doubled the size of the apron to 312,160 sq ft (29,000 m2). (The airport is built on a strip of land which separates the sea from an enclosed, shallow lagoon and the land has been reclaimed from this area.) The expansion allowed an increase in the number of parking spaces for wide-body jets from six to ten at any one time, greatly increasing the airport’s potential. The construction coincided with the introduction of buses to transfer passengers between aircraft and terminal, though passengers still walk to the nearer parking slots and to all the regional inter-island flights. A new bypass taxiway was added from the west portion of this new apron to the threshold of Runway 09, cutting out any need for aircraft other than the larger Airbus A340s and Boeing 747s to backtrack for departure and thence increasing the possible number of movements per hour. The new taxiway’s designation is Taxiway Lima, although Air Traffic Controllers at the airport regularly instruct departing aircraft to taxi to the holding point Runway 09 via the bypass.

Airport Structure

Improvements to the whole airport infrastructure started in 1997 when the runway was resurfaced, and this project was followed by the rebuilding of the arrivals area the following year. In September 2000, work was completed on upgrading and expanding the departure hall from 7,535 sq ft (700m2) to 11,840 sq ft (1.100m2). Air conditioning has been installed in the whole area (it was previously open plan). There was also an expansion of the airside retail outlets, plus the opening of a new VIP lounge with the same kind of services and amenities as are offered in similar lounges in Europe and the USA.

Continued from previous Princess Juliana International Airport page!