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Tuesday, November 1, 2016

End of an Era


For aviation enthusiasts and tourists alike, the final visit to the Caribbean island of St Maarten (SXM) by a Boeing 747 on Friday 28 October will have been a bitter sweet moment. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has operated the Boeing 747-400 to the picturesque island paradise since October 1990 on a triangular pattern originating at Amsterdam and continuing to Curacao before heading back to Amsterdam three times per week. For the Northern Winter schedule the airline has shuffled their fleet and Prince Juliana International will now receive daily Airbus A330-200 flights while Curacao will now have daily direct flights from/to Amsterdam with the Boeing 747. 

Live streaming video service provider PTZtv have uploaded extensive coverage of the final visit to their FaceBook page which should be viewable without being a subscriber. 


The thrice weekly visit to SXM by the Jumbo always drew large crowds to the now world famous Maho Beach. Seeing such a large aircraft at close proximity both on arrival and departure to a relatively short runway was certainly an eagerly anticipated experience! We were fortunate to time our day visit to the island on 29 September 2015.






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