I spent five glorious days at what is arguably one of the best airports in the world for aircraft photography, Sint Maarten (SXM). I was there in February 2018, just seven months before Hurricane Irma devastated the island.  My base was the Alegria Hotel, just south of the famous Sunset Bar & Grill. At that point, I had a condition that required that I stay away from the sand, so I could not wander down to the beach and get the usual photos. Instead, I parked myself on the top floor of the Alegria which, as it turned out, offered a unique view of the runway. This included a beautiful view of aircraft lined up for takeoff.

SXM may not have the greatest variety of airlines but what does show up can be pretty interesting to someone used to traffic at US airports. The inter-island traffic, in particular is made up primarily of STOL aircraft in airline color schemes not seen anywhere else. Since pilots of these commuter airplanes were undoubtedly quite familiar with VFR approaches to SXM, some if these approaches looked mighty casual. The twin Otter was the most popular of these aircraft.

There were also a good number of Islanders in and out of SXM.

V2-LIK MSN: 1012 LIAT ATR-42-600

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V2-LIB MSN: 1103 LIAT ATR-72-600

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C-GTQI MSN: 29080 Air Transat Boeing 737-73S

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HI914 MSN: 49476 Pan Am World Airways – PAWA Dominicana McDonnell Douglas MD-82