 |
|
3rd Quarter 2009 Volume 01 - No. 5 |
 |
|
|
AIR CARAIBES TO START PARIS FLIGHTS IN DECEMBER |
|
 Air
Caraibes is elevating its services to St. Maarten from regional to
international as of this coming December. The Guadeloupe-based French
airline will operate a direct flight from Orly Airport in Paris to St.
Maarten twice weekly as of December 12, 2009. “We decided not to leave
all our eggs in one basket,” said Zoe Wegnerowicz, Air Caraibes’
Representative in the North Eastern Caribbean. “We are diversifying our
product offering to St. Maarten.”
Air Caraibes has been servicing St. Maarten since 1973, offering flights
to the French Caribbean territories. Ms. Wegnerowicz explained that the
company is privately owned by the French Dubreuil Group. It is a merger
of the smaller airlines – Air Guadeloupe, Air St Barthélémy, Air St
Martin and Air Martinique - that used to fly between the French islands.
“We reassembled these airlines and brought them together under one name,
Air Caraibes to offer regional
air service,” she said.
Air Caraibes flies 4 airbus A330 type aircraft, one ATR 72-500 and one
Brazil-made Embraer. They employ 800 people throughout the French
islands and French Guiana and transported over one million passengers in
2008. The company boasts an annual revenue of 230 million Euros and
clocked six million Euros profit in 2008. “We are a healthy company,”
Ms. Wegnerowicz smiled.
A force to be reckoned with on short and mid-haul routes –with flights
between Guadeloupe, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and Belem in
Brazil-, Air Caraibes now has its sights set on further developing its
long haul service; the company flies to Paris from Guadeloupe and
Martinique using an Airbus A330-200 since 2003. For the St.
Maarten-Paris flight the Airbus 330-300, a giant that seats more than
320 passengers will be used. This aircraft brings Airbus’ wide-body
efficiency to airline operations on longer-haul routes and is the
largest member of the twin-engine A330 series. Air Caraibes will use it
between St. Maarten and Paris on Saturdays and Tuesdays, taking off from
St. Maarten just before 4.30pm. “We’re making a stop in Haiti, where we
will be for an hour to re-fuel, after which we fly eight hours to
Orly-Sud in Paris,” said Ms. Wegnerowicz.
She listed some advantages of this flight, among which the connections
at the airport at Orly and the time passengers will arrive there.
“Orly-Sud is perfect for passengers that have South France as their
final destination; it is not as busy as Charles de Gaulle airport and
offers good connections to the south, whether by plane or train,” she
said, calling the new flight a perfect solution for the Antilles. “A lot
of people from the Antilles, French and Dutch live or have family in the
South of France.”
She stressed that Air Caraibes is not competing with Air France and
Corsair on the transatlantic flights to the French Republic, but should
be seen as rather complementary. “We do not offer the same product. We
fly to a different airport, and with different equipment. We fill a
void,” she said. Air Caraibes is already actively promoting the new
service. A special brochure produced on the flight, details the Airbus
330-300 as an aircraft that offers Comfort a la Carte. Air Caraibes
offers two of the three flight class options on this flight: Classe
Madras, comparable to First Class and Classe Soleil (Coach).
The company is also developing a frequent flyer kind of programme, which
will offer benefits to loyal customers. Ms. Wegnerowicz wasn’t ready to
divulge much about that yet, but assured that it will be a good program
to join. “We are an Antillean company, with headquarters in Guadeloupe
and we look after our people,” she said.
|
|
|
|
|
Click
here to download the complete Horizons newsletter
|
back to top
| printer-friendly version
 |
Search through this website
|
 |
 |
| |
|
|
|
