Air Antilles

Air Antilles is a French airline based at Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe, France. It is a regional airline operating scheduled and seasonal services in the French Antilles.

History
The airline began operations in December 2002 owned by Air Guyane. It is another title for Air Guyane Express's Caribbean operations and both airlines share their call sign, IATA and ICAO codes. The airline uses as its Airline Reservations System Zenith, developed by Travel Technology Interactive, a French-based company.

Air Antilles is the subsidiary of the Guyanese airline Air Guyane.

Air Antilles and Air Guyane are the 2 airlines from the Guadeloupean group CAIRE.

In 2016, the airline changed its name to Air Antilles and introduced a new livery with the delivery of its first ATR 72-600.

In September 2023, the group CAIRE of which both Air Antilles and Air Guyane were a part of was terminated. Air Antilles was set to be brought up by a public-private partnership, while Air Guyane was to be liquidated. Air Antilles is said to resume the selling of tickets online in May 2024, with a reduced service, instead only serving Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre, Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin. However, there are still plans for their full service to swing back into action in the upcoming year.

Fleet
As of summer 2024, Air Antilles operates the following aircraft:

This table includes aircraft owned by Air Antilles at the time CAIRE was terminated. The fleet is subject to change as the company commences more regular operations in summer of 2024.

Accidents and Incidents
On August 24, 2023, Air Antilles flight 3S722 veered off of runway 28 at the Saint Barthélemy airport moments after touchdown. The aircraft involved was a DHC-6-400 Twin Otter registered F-OMYS. The Twin Otter then stuck a parked and unoccupied helicopter that had landed 30 minutes prior. While none of the six onboard the Twin Otter were seriously injured, the high speed impact caused substantial damage to both aircraft.

The pilots blamed the loss of directional control on a steering issue. Furthermore, video evidence shows F-OMYS having steering difficulties while taxiing at Saint Barth only ten days prior to the crash.

Air Antilles was temporarily suspended from flying to Saint Barth following the accident.