The decision to delay by two weeks reopening the destination to US travel planned for July 1 seems reasonable under the circumstances. The intention had first been to postpone only flights from hard coronavirus-hit Florida, but seeing the most recent infection rates in other states too it was applied nation-wide at the last minute.
There was the additional threat of a border closure by the French side because the US is not on the European Union (EU) “safe countries” list, while Curaçao and the so-called BES islands (Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba) were to suspend air traffic with St. Maarten also based on advice of Dutch health authorities.
The latter may still happen with Aruba when it starts receiving American visitors on July 10. What transpires there can be considered locally once the 14-day postponement ends.
In any case the 72-hour preboarding negative PCR test result will remain required, along with a double screening on arrival and another test in case of a high temperature, combined with temporary quarantining pending the outcome. There is even talk of a possible mandatory three-day quarantining period, but especially for people going on vacation only a week or two that is hardly an attractive prospect.
There was some question as well as to whether Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) was ready to handle a large volume of passengers several US carriers could produce. That is apparently not quite the case yet in terms of personnel, judging from Wednesday’s demonstration featured in today’s paper.
That an Air France flight was reportedly unable to land because of the protest and had to be diverted to Guadeloupe is a serious matter. Great care must be taken not to undermine the already arduous task of reviving the tourism economy that has been paralysed for more than three months.
Management and the union need to quickly resolve their issues with the general interest in mind. Employees in both the public and private sectors must generally understand that there is far less money to go around and if it had not been for liquidity support from the Netherlands there would be practically none coming in at all.
Guests from primarily Europe and Canada could produce at least some business for now, but until Americans are allowed back in it will be difficult if not impossible to reach even near pre-COVID-19 levels. Without them the dominant hospitality industry simply cannot survive much longer.
