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Quito, Ecuador – (Thursday, February 15, 2018) – “Still Connecting the Caribbean to the Globe,” is the theme of the Princess Juliana International Airport, SXM, at the 11th Annual Routes Americas conference which is being held in Quito, Ecuador, from February 13 – 15, 2018. Meanwhile, the associated tag line is “SXM Strong – Rebuilding Our Nation.” Both themes appear vividly on the exhibition booth, which is strategically located at the heart of the Routes Americas exhibition hall. The event will allow the SXM Airport team to network with international senior airline decision makers. It also offers the opportunity for SXM Airport to build high-value relationships with some of the most influential aviation professionals across the region.

The SXM Airport delegation is led by Michel Hyman, Chief Operations Officer (COO), Some 650 delegates are attending the conference including representatives of 147 airports. The SXM Airport delegation has confirmed a total of 14 key meeting sessions.The delegation is set to meet with Southwest Airlines, Eurowings, Suriname Airways and Air Canada amongst many of the legacy carriers. The initial meeting sessions included a meet up with representatives of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The IATA representatives were briefed on the reconstruction process and discussed how IATA can assist with the reviving of the airport. Another agenda point was the Caribbean Aviation Day which is set to be hosted in Barbados in June 2018.

“The vital task at hand is to attract new air lift and service recovery to St. Maarten, while driving home the message that although we are in the midst of our recovery phase, we are actually open for business,” said Hyman.“Additionally,’ he continued, “our hub partners were affected minimally by the recent hurricanes and are therefore, even more so ready to reap the rewards of the potential partnerships.” Though eager to bring home great partnership deals with the potential airlines, the delegation remained honest and open with information of the local hotel room inventory as shared by SHTA and target dates of the reconstruction process of the terminal building.