Princess Juliana airport on St Maarten needs no introduction. World famous among aviation enthusiasts and beachcombers alike, its spectacular approach and take off at Maho Beach make this one of the civil airports on every aviation photographer’s wish list. As if this were not enough, the airport approach ranks as St Maarten’s most popular tourist attraction, which is remarkable given the natural beauty, shops, casinos and beaches that can be found in abundance on this shared Dutch-French Caribbean island.

The airport serves both the Dutch and French side of the island, illustrated by this Air France Airbus 340, seen just before touchdown from the Maho Beach Hotel.

“An eye for an eye”, the owner must have thought when choosing the paint scheme for his Falcon 900EX. The eye lit up nicely in the tropical late afternoon sun.

The same aircraft on approach in stunning light again.

LIAT is probably your choice for island hopping with a Dash 8, as seen here over Maho Beach. Because of questionable punctuality record its name is often explained as “Leaving Islands Any Time”

The pride of St Maarten is WinAir, which serves tiny neighboring islands with very short runways, like Saba and St Barth’s.

Spirit Airbus 319 seen over Maho Beach from as seen from Maho Beach Hotel. Below left is the famous Sunset Beach Bar that serves aviation lovers well by listing both cocktails and aircraft arrival times on a surf board.

The vista from said hotel provides a bird's eye view of the proceedings and aircraft can be photographed from different angles as is illustrated by this US Airways Boeing 757 N924UW.

How low can you go? An American Airlines 757 overflying your beach chair…

..íf you cannot stand the heat, then stay out of the kitchen...

Not only the beach, but also the green hills of St Maarten provide a great backdrop, as seen on this Jet Blue Airbus taxiing out in the late afternoon.

The name Sunset Beach Bar at Maho is well chosen, given the spectacular sunset approach of this Insel Air MD83.