As reported by St Maarten's newspaper The Daily Herald, Princess Juliana International Airport will introduce an Airport Improvement Fee (AIF) effective July 1. This fee is meant to help offset the cost of improving the infrastructure and services at the airport and is expected to be in effect until December 31, 2011. The AIF will be charged to all departing passengers and will be collected by the airport as part of the price of airline tickets. The termination date of December 31, 2011 assumes that passenger traffic will have increased enough by then to sustain the investment that has been made in the new airport. The projected increase in passengers is 3% per year. If passenger levels increase substantially more than 3% per year, the AIF will be withdrawn earlier. Just under 1.7 million passengers used the airport in 2006.