A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and that certainly goes for the photo on page 3 of Saturday’s paper. It showed arriving passengers having to stand outside the airport terminal in the sun quite a while due to long Immigration lines.
Unfortunately, it’s a regular occurrence with several incoming flights around the same time. Needless to say; this is unacceptable going into the high season, also because it’s the first impression visitors get.
What adds to the confusion is that residents are often waiting as well while the booth designated for such is empty, simply because nobody tells them so. And it doesn’t really feel good either to cut in front of guests especially if they don’t know why.
Perhaps there should be no separate booth for residents under the circumstances, to speed up the entry process in general and out of solidarity with those who – after all – drive the local tourism economy that provides the livelihood for practically the entire island. Other ways to improve the flow of incoming travellers should be looked at post-haste by Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) and the Immigration authorities.
The current situation also highlights the need to start the terminal’s reconstruction sooner rather than later, as there is obviously only so much one can do with the facility in its present state. Even though this is not a so-called “meeting week,” Parliament would do well to reconvene the adjourned plenary session on this topic and try to reach compromise regarding a motion to reassure the bondholders, so that the caretaker government can sign agreements to finance the project with a grant from the Dutch-sponsored Trust Fund managed by the World Bank and a soft loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
This is an urgent matter of national interest.
