Part 1 in a multi-part series about US Pre-Clearance for St. Maarten and the SXM Airport. Read how it all started in this first installment. A review.
PHILIPSBURG – The term pre-clearance appeared for the first time in local media in a report about the Routes Americas aviation conference held in Denver Colorado, in February 2015.
The St. Maarten delegation – consisting of Tourism and Economic Affairs Minister Claret Connor, airport director Regina Labega, operations manager Michel Hyman and marketing and customer service manager Suzy Kartokromo – discussed on that occasion the options of an open skies agreement and the establishment of a US pre-clearance facility at Princess Juliana International Airport.
“Open Skies is definitely a goal St. Maarten should pursue if we want to attract more airlines to the destination and further solidify our position as a regional hub,” Labega was quoted as saying in a newspaper article. “Of course, we’re also very much interested in establishing US pre-clearance at the airport. The matter is under serious consideration and we’re doing all that is necessary to ensure that we achieve this.”
Labega said at the time that she “could not give a time frame” for these goals to become a reality and by now we know that more than four years down the line open skies and US pre-clearance are still no more than a hotly debated pipedream.
In March 2015 the airport was named the third best in the region by Caribbean Journal. This publication gave “high consideration” to the availability of US pre-clearance. That facility put Aruba’s airport in the top-ten.
“We are working seriously in the direction of establishing a similar service here,” Labega was quoted in a newspaper article about the Caribbean Journal ranking.
After a silence of two years, parliamentarian Frans Richardson brought up pre-clearance in a central committee meeting of parliament in June 2017. He suggested the airport seek cooperation with L’Espérance Airport in Grand Case, adding that he expects “cooperation with the northern side on pre-clearance will be beneficial.”
Another year later, in July 2018, a local news report stated that things were not moving along smoothly. Former Prime Minister William Marlin had announced already in 2017 that there had been meetings with the United State Customs and Border Protection (CPB) and the Transportation and American Security Administration. The airport would move towards “getting pre-clearance soon,” Marlin says in the article.
But Cleatus P. Hunt Jr., director of US CPB Port of Dallas, wrote in 2018 to the airport’s Chief Operations Officer Michel Hyman that there was a problem. “We may have to take difficult decisions to pause any further discussion on design work with the airport until we have received substantive feedback from the government on the proposed bilateral agreement.”
This could result in the cancellation of meetings with architecture and design firm Corgan. “Pre-clearance cannot begin until the bilateral agreement is fully executed,” Hunt wrote.
While Tourism and Economic Affairs Minister Stuart Johnson and Justice Minister Cornelius de Weever assured journalists during a Council of Ministers press briefing that they’d made sure that “everything everything that has to be done on our end is done” subsequent emails from Hunt to Hyman revealed that that statement was rather optimistic.
Hunt reminded Hyman of a conference call about the finer points of the bilateral agreement on June 1, 2018. The government would provide suggested amendments by June 8; but after a few reminders, those suggestions still had not been received in the United States by July 2.
The airport’s interim Chief Executive Officer Ravi Daryanani however, told local journalists that outstanding issues had been resolved and that talks about the bilateral agreement had restarted. According to Daryanani, there were no more reasons for further delays.
At the Council of Ministers press briefing on September 11, 2019, (now outgoing) Minister of Finance Perry Geerlings made clear that pre-clearance is still a work in progress. While the government has never said that pre-clearance is not a priority, Geerlings pointed out, these things take time: “You are talking about establishing a treaty here and we have to talk about tax-exemptions for the 80+ US-employees that are going to work there. You have to plan this in a responsible way so that it does not backfire on the country and its people.”
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Related articles:
Part 2 – The nuts and bolts of US Pre-Clearance for St. Maarten
Part 3 – The pros and cons of US Pre-Clearance for St. Maarten
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Editor’s Note:
StMaartenNews.com intends to publish an indepth series of articles about the topic of US Pre-Clearance for St. Maarten’s SXM Airport.
We intend to highlight the following topics regarding US Pre-clearance:
1. Intro/History of Pre-clearance for St. Maarten
2. What is Pre-clearance? Benefits? Advantages?
3. Present day status? Cost of Pre-clearance (facility)?
4. Ongoing political debate.
In an opinion piece we will delve into why Pre-clearance is not accepted in other countries or why it is still being considered (for years) but no decision taken on it. Like in Holland in regards to Schiphol Airport..
We will also discuss why Pre-clearance is such a hot topic now with all the politicians and political parties clammering and jockeying for position on the topic.They are all for it. But why? Does it have to do with the $80 million price tag for a Pre-clearance facility as reported in our latest article about the alternative financing by JPF Corporate Finance proposed to the airport holding company: https://stmaartennews.com/aviation-news/airport-holding-pressured-management-accept-jpf-funding-proposal
With all the hoopla surrounding the (re)construction of the airport terminal building, the FBO facility, the MET office, the Pre-Clearance facility and even a VIP Lounge and the millions involved in these projects, the financing needed for these projects continues to be a hot potato for all parties involved, including the Dutch, the World Bank, EIB, the Trust Fund, the National Recovery Projects Bureau and third party financing entities looking to get involved.
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