TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Road in front of airport blocked by cones

Daily Herald story I can see where this is a royal PITA. But this story has to be wrong. It says that the cones have been in place for 4 months. That can't be correct, as they weren't there in June..

I truly get why they might need to ramp up security in light of current world events, but don't see how this would be of any assistance in that respect.

They were not in place on July 1st when I landed, but the cones were in place July 8 on my return home flight.

I would think that makes traffic back up horribly, doesn't it? Apparently they meant to say "four weeks"...

If I see the photo correctly this is the area where signs say no parking but people park there anyway if only to drop off a passenger before returning rental car. If so, is there any other area to do a drop off?

We use Leslie and meet him outside then return car to parking lot for him and walk over to the departures.

must have been today as we left yesterday and they were not up

They were there July 15 and 21--the two times I dropped off at the airport. It did make things difficult.

There are two lanes for taxis to drop off, closest to the airport. Then there is the divider. Then there are three lanes that are for immediate loading and unloading. True, you can't PARK there legally, but there is no place else for immediate drop off.

Sounds like maybe after the story came out, that they have changed their policy, again.

Okay, don't get me started. Yes the world now has to be vigilant about terrorism, however, this is Sint Maarten and excepting for cruise ships loaded with Americans I personally think this is a very low risk place for terrorists activities. Also, come on, if a terrorist wanted to blow up the airport does anyone think that a lane or two (12 to 24 feet) further away makes much of a difference in a blast.

Both my wife and I during the end of the Cold War reasoned that Sint Maarten was a great place to be in the event of nuclear explosions, at least initially. Can't image this little rock being targeted. That said the only problem would be lack of food and supplies since everything is shipped in.

Okay, my two cents worth, as usual local government is acting like it is a world power and assumes that someone somewhere cares.

For sure, I'm not advocating this move as a good one, and I can only start to imagine the chaos and inconvenience the cones at the airport must create, but it is a half French island, and the French in general have taken a lot of hits in this terrorist war and SXM does derive most of their tourism as Americans, no? And wasn't there talk about visitors from the Middle East having been caught traveling through SXM on false passports?

None of these inconveniences - be they three ounce or less bottles and/or pat downs for infants and grannies not to mention having to half undress in the securety lines at the airport - are appreciated by any of us, but they do say 'an ounce of protection.....' I guess, in the end, what we think really isn't going to have much effect on the government - here or there.

We can only hope that in a few weeks they'll tire of the complaining and go back to the way it's always been, and those of us who have spoken out in opposition to it in the first place will have to hope and pray nothing does happen there. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

If anyone really wanted to do serious damage to the airport facilities they would just have to walk inside and do their deed....and...if someone still wanted to use a vehicle they would just drive over the cones and get on with it.

I get that completely but by doing something - 'anything' even if it's something as irritating as this - it's a feel good moment for the government and they can now say they've done their part, or tried to.

Wasn't it in SXM that two Sirians were caught using fake passports to enter from Domician Republic or some island? I for one am glad they were caught by whatever means SXM used. No telling what they'd planned once on island with all those "American tourists."

Yup, and I believe they were deported to try again...

This might be the reason.
http://sxmislandtime.com/front-page-headliners/38479-kpsm-issues-alert-for-

I could not agree more. We fly from a small town on commuter airlines. There are times there are more TSA agents than passengers, it's a joke. We travel so much they know us on a first name basis, seriously.

Thanx for the post SXMScubaman.

...except that another poster here said that the cones were placed in front of the airport around the first week in July. And this person supposedly escaped on Wednesday this week. So that could NOT have had any part in the decision-making to place the cones there.

Has anyone ruled out that there was any intermittent repair/curb painting/minor construction going on?

The original Daily Herald story says that the cones were placed there for security.

It's too bad that airports from the Istanbul Airport along with the over 20 other airports(that had terrorist attacks) going back to Lod Airport in 1972 didn't have rubber cones for security. We all know that when a terrorist sees those cones he will turn around because he won't be able to get past them and besides, he wouldn't want to get in trouble by ignoring them.

All airports should have the security that Israel has.

I would think a couple of security officers could deal with the reason given AND allow for dropping off of passengers...(kinda like every other airport I have dropped passengers off at)

"to ensure that vehicles don’t remain in front of the terminal building longer than it takes to pick up or drop off passengers.”

...and the coned lanes are not the closest lanes to the building..

I don't know. It creeps me out to see soldiers with huge guns patrolling the airport. I hope our world doesn't become that, but I fear it will.

I would much rather see good guys with huge guns than bad guys with them. I feel a lot better when the police are around. You never hear of anyone holding up a doughnut shop.

When we went to Italy not only were there soldiers with guns but German Shepard dogs.

Sounds like our first trip to SXM in 1973 (or 04?) and our earliest introduction to the island.

We deplaned from our KLM plane on the runway and were met by a line of armed soldiers instructing us to "Run, run, run....." for the shelter of the terminal. There were more soldiers with guns and sand bunkers on the terminal roof as well as soldiers with guns and dogs patrolling the outskirts of the airport. The 'Friendly Island' my foot!!

We later were told that world wide threats had been made by the PLO, calling for the bombing of KLM planes. It was quite the island intro and one we never forgot. Haven't seen anything like it since and hope we never do again.

We spoke to a life-long island resident about it a few years ago and he said he recalled hearing about it when he was a young man but living on 'the other side of the hill' he hadn't seen it firsthand. It was a very different island all those many years ago, for sure!