Princess Juliana International Airport

About this project

Princess Juliana International Airport is the main airport on the island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean.

With an average of 1.6 million passengers per year, the airport needed a new, state-of-the-art terminal building to replace outdated facilities. The new building had to be both earthquake and hurricane resistant while remaining within the constraints of the airport’s budget. Once completed, the new terminal would also be used to provide shelter to local residents in the event of a natural disaster.

NACO was contracted to deliver the design of the new terminal building to meet the estimated future capacity of up to 2.9 million annual passengers. We also delivered a new master plan which included designs for aircraft pavements, additional apron stands, passenger loading bridges and the Air Traffic Control centre.

As well as being earthquake and hurricane resistant, the new airport building was designed based on a ‘one-and-a-half-level’ concept with check-in desks and baggage claim on the ground floor and the departure lounge on the first floor. Alongside the essential terminal building requirements, the design included four passenger loading bridges and additional apron stands meaning that the aircraft parking apron can hold about 25 aircraft simultaneously.

Phase 1 of the development was completed in 2001 when the apron extension was inaugurated. The new terminal and associated facilities officially opened in 2007. Today, Princess Juliana International Airport remains the main airport serving passengers on the island of St. Maarten.