Hato is fastest growing 

AIRPORT--According to the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) on St. Maarten is the third largest airport in the Caribbean.

ALTA on Monday released its updated 2010 Latin America and Caribbean Capacity Analysis for 2010, and has PJIA as third largest airport behind only San Juan, Puerto Rico (Luis Munoz Marin International Airport) and Nassau, in the Bahamas (Lynden Pindling International Airport).

In terms of total flights (departing flights only) San Juan moved 62,843, Nassau 28,317 and St. Maarten 25,038 in 2009. Trinidad & Tobago, the US Virgin Islands, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Antigua and St. Barths round off the top ten (in order from 4 to 10).

The ALTA report is a comprehensive compendium of the region's air transport statistics, including a ranking of the most important airports and city pairs in the region in terms of volume and growth. This year's results highlight the region's growth despite being faced with challenges due to the world crisis.

The analysis identifies the top and fastest growing airports (in terms of flights) and city pairs (in terms of available seats) across the region, and is organized in a hierarchical way that allows readers to quickly identify given information. The report separates international, domestic and total flights. This year, the report also includes top airports in the region by seat capacity for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The analysis includes information on 510 airports and 2,192 city pairs from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and compares overall 2009 figures with 2008, as well as the average annual growth rates between 1999 and 2009.

In terms of international flights, St. Maarten ranks second behind San Juan with 20,471 compared to 56,025 of San Juan in 2009. Aruba ranks ninth in international flights with 12,138 and Curaçao 12th with 10,567. Curaçao and Aruba were also fourth and fifth respectively as the fastest growing airports in the Caribbean for international flights.

St. Maarten also ranks sixth in domestic flights in the Caribbean with 4,567 in 2009. In terms of fastest growing airports (all flights) in the Caribbean, Hato International Airport on Curaçao took the top spot with 2,602 flights added in 2009, a 20 per cent increase over 2008. Bonaire was fourth and Aruba sixth.

When looking at Latin America and the Caribbean together, St. Maarten ranks eighth in departing international flights.

It should be noted that PJIA was also ranked as the slowest growing airport in the Caribbean. However, this is due to the fact that PJIA already caters to most major carriers and markets, whereas other airports are now trying to attract the business PJIA has.

Also noteworthy to mention about the report is the fact that only scheduled passenger flights are included in the queries; cargo and unscheduled flights are

not included whatsoever, and information on airports includes departing flights only, not total movements.