According to the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT, St. Maarten had a first-quarter surplus of 44 million Netherlands Antillean guilders. That is NAf. 25 million better than expected.
Higher revenues from taxes (NAf. 9 million) and other sources (NAf. 8 million) are to thank, as well as underspending on goods and services by NAf. 7 million. Mind you, the latter is mostly due to non-execution of projects because the budget was not enacted until the end of March, so the backlog must be made up in the rest of 2023.
And while the first and last parts of any year are usually relatively good ones in terms of income during the high winter season, the next six months could prove telling. That’s why the projected annual surplus at the end is only NAf. 3 million.
Keeping the tourism economy going during the “long hot summer” and beyond remains crucial in this regard. One way government plans to raise extra money is with a visitor entry tax, but passengers must still arrive to collect such.
According to a report in today’s newspaper, American Airlines (AA) experienced 90+% load factors on most flights to this destination and a 17% hike in ticket sales compared to last year. The mega carrier plans to keep its two daily Miami flights next winter, in addition to service out of New York, Philadelphia and Charlotte.
However, with the US East Coast providing close to 90% of airlift, current capacity restrictions as a result of material supply-chain issues and pilot shortages are a problem, just like expensive fares. For both these reasons today’s news about the weekly return of Frontier Airlines from Orlando is very welcome.
Nevertheless, efforts should continue unabated to attract new flights, also out of other North American gateways and even different markets that can bring more business during the traditional slow period too.
