Air Caraïbes Bolsters Operations with New ATR 72-600 Addition

Air Caraïbes received its fourth ATR 72-600, registered as F-OSIL, at the manufacturer’s facility in Toulouse/Blagnac (TLS), which will allow the airline to strengthen its presence in the French Caribbean.

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F-OSIL is currently in Praia (RAI), Sal Island, on its delivery flight, after departing from Toulouse and making a stop in Gran Canaria (LPA). It will subsequently make stops in Fortaleza (FOR) and Cayenne (CAY) before arriving in Martinique.

The airline operates with four ATR 72-600 (F-OSIL, F-OSIT, F-OSIV, and F-OSIX), and the last time it received a turboprop was in December 2019. The aircraft primarily operate from Fort-de-France (FDF), Martinique, connecting with Saint Martin (SFG) and Pointe-à-Pitre (PTP), Guadeloupe, with 4 to 9 flights per day depending on the season.

«A proud moment for us today with the delivery of our new ATR 72-600 in Toulouse! This is a significant step forward for our regional fleet and our commitment to offering increasingly efficient and innovative services to our passengers,» stated Air Caraïbes on its LinkedIn account.

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Air Caraïbes’ fleet and destinations

Air Caraïbes meets the demand between France and the French Caribbean with wide-body aircraft. According to the Cirium platform, the airline scheduled 1,969,788 seats across its network of destinations in 2024.

In addition to the ATRs, its fleet consists of one Airbus A330-200, two A330-300s, three A350-900s, and three A350-1000s, with one additional A350-1000 pending delivery. These aircraft are based at Paris Orly (ORY) and operate to:

• Fort-de-France, 7 to 14 weekly flights.
• Pointe-à-Pitre, 7 to 18 weekly flights.
• Cayenne (CAY), French Guiana, 4 weekly flights.
• Cancún (CUN), Mexico, 3 weekly flights.
• Punta Cana (PUJ), Dominican Republic, 3 to 7 weekly flights.
• San Salvador (ZSA), Bahamas, 1 weekly flight.
• Santo Domingo/Las Américas, Dominican Republic, 1 weekly flight.

Frequencies vary by season.

Its main competitors between Guadeloupe, Martinique, and France are Air France and Corsair, although Air Caraïbes is the leading airline with a market share of 33.3% in terms of available seat-kilometers (ASK). Meanwhile, in the French Caribbean, it competes with Air Antilles, which recently resumed operations.