The airport is located on the Dutch side of the island, in the country of Sint Maarten, close to the shore of Simpson Bay Lagoon.

[2] The airport serves as a hub for Winair and is the major gateway for the smaller Leeward Islands, including Anguilla, Saba, Saint Barthélemy and Sint Eustatius.

The airport has very low-altitude flyover landing approaches because one end of its runway is extremely close to the shore and Maho Beach.

This included widening, strengthening and renovating the runway, increasing the bearing capacity of the taxiways, construction of a new apron and an upgrade of the (old) terminal.

The new air traffic control tower and the radar station commenced operations on 29 March 2004, while the new terminal opened in late October 2006.

If traffic develops as forecast, Phase III of the masterplan will be executed, consisting of an extension of the new terminal building and the construction of a full parallel taxiway system.

[6] In 1994, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and France signed the Franco-Dutch treaty on Saint Martin border controls, which allows for joint Franco-Dutch border controls on so-called "risk flights", requiring arriving passengers to have valid travel papers for both sides of the island.

In July 2016, KLM announced that, starting in October, it would serve the airport with direct flights from Amsterdam instead of the triangle route via Curaçao.

[8] In September 2018, KLM officials confirmed that they hoped to resume direct flights between Amsterdam and St. Maarten by November 2019.

On 15 October 2024 the new arrival hall has been reopened featuring improved baggage handling systems, streamlined immigration and customs processes.

The proximity of Maho Beach to the runway has made the airport one of the world's favorite places among planespotters despite the dangers.

[18] Designed to handle some 2.5 million passengers annually, the new four-story terminal building offered (at least until the arrival of Hurricane Irma) 30,500 square metres (328,000 sq ft) of floor space and was fully air-conditioned.