Air Caraïbes

Air Caraïbes is a French airline and is the regional airline of the French Caribbean which comprises two overseas departments of France; Guadeloupe and Martinique. The airline is headquartered in Les Abymes in Guadeloupe,[2] and its main base is Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe, with a secondary hub at Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport, near Fort-de-France in Martinique.[3] It operates scheduled and charter services serving 13 islands in the West Indies, and also operates transatlantic flights to Paris in Metropolitan France using Airbus A330 and Airbus A350 aircraft under the Air Caraïbes Atlantique brand.

Air Caraïbes
IATA ICAO Callsign
TX FWI FRENCH WEST
Founded1969 (as Société Antillaise de Transport Aérien/Air Guadeloupe)[1]
Commenced operationsJuly 2000[1]
HubsPointe-à-Pitre International Airport
Focus cities
Frequent-flyer programPreference
Fleet size14
Destinations13
Parent companyGroupe Dubreuil
HeadquartersLes Abymes, Guadeloupe, France
Key peopleMarc Rochet
Employees1900 (2019)
Websitewww.aircaraibes.com

History

The airline was originally established as Societe Caribéenne de Transports Aériens, and started operations in September 1994. The current Air Caraïbes was founded in July 2000 through the merger of various local airlines Air Guadeloupe, Air Martinique, Air Saint Barthélémy, and Air Saint Martin, and was created in response to the air transport needs of the French Caribbean territories. In 2002, the company flew 445,000 passengers and had €68 million in revenues. In December 2003, the airline began services to Paris Orly Airport from Guadeloupe and Martinique using an Airbus A330-200.

The airline is owned by Groupe Dubreuil (85%) and has 627 employees as of March 2007.[3] Air Caraïbes uses Travel Technology Interactive's airline management system, Aeropack.

Air Caraibes existed before 1990, operating Britten-Norman BN2-A Islander and Cessna Caravan prop aircraft. That year, one of their BN2-A's was sold to a Norwegian parachute club and flown from Guadeloupe to Florida and then to Oslo, Norway.

Destinations

Codeshare agreements

Air Caraïbes has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:[4]

Fleet
An Air Caraïbes Airbus A350-900 XWB painted in the new livery at Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport.
An Air Caraïbes Airbus A330-200 wearing the former livery.

As of January 2020, the Air Caraïbes fleet (including Air Caraïbes Atlantique) consists of the following aircraft:[5][6]

Air Caraïbes Fleet

Aircraft In
Service		 Orders Passengers Notes
B PE E Total
Airbus A330-200 3 — 12 24 267 303
— — 318 318
Airbus A330-300 3 — 12 35 307 354
— 28 350 378
Airbus A350-900 3 — 18 45 326 389
Airbus A350-1000 1 2 24 45 360 429 Entry into service in December 2019.[7]
ATR 72-500 2 — — — 70 70
ATR 72-600 3 — — — 74 74
Total 15 2

Previously operated

Air Caraïbes has operated the following aircraft types:[8]

Incidents and accidents
  • On 7 December 1999, a Beechcraft 1900D crashed onto a mountain near Belle-Anse, Haiti. All 20 people on board were killed.
  • On 24 March 2001, Air Caraïbes Flight 1501 crashed into a house while on approach to Saint Barthélemy Airport in Saint Barthélemy with 17 passengers and 2 crews. Everyone on board perished. One person on the ground died in the subsequent fire. The investigation concluded that the crash was caused by the pilot's error in managing the thrust lever. The report blamed the crew for accidentally entering the thrust into BETA range.[9]
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References
  1. Norwood, Tom; Wegg, John (2002). North American Airlines Handbook (3rd ed.). Sandpoint, ID: Airways International. ISBN 0-9653993-8-9. Archived from the original on 2016-11-28.
  2. "Legal Notice Archived 2010-07-14 at the Wayback Machine." Air Caraïbes. Retrieved on 24 June 2010.
  3. Flight International 27 March 2007
  4. "Airline alliance". Air Caraïbes. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  5. "Global Airline Guide 2019 (Part One)". Airliner World. October 2019: 14.
  6. "FLEET PLAN". aircaraibes.com. 15 February 2018. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-02-20. Retrieved 2013-12-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. North American Airlines Handbook published by Airways International Inc 1997
  9. "bea-fr.org" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-20. Retrieved 2014-11-13.

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