warakorn

This must be a very nice domestic French route, wholly within the European Union.
Albeit the flight takes place in Latin America.

Martinique and Guadeloupe are two French Oversea's departments.
They are an integral part of the French Republic.
EU rules apply - both for roaming, money (Euro), free movement, power sockets, EC261/2004, open skies ...).
One difference is that both island are not a part of Schengen area, hence, they must be entry and exit immigration checks.

The flight with Air Caraibes just took 35 minutes but cost EUR 80 without a bag.
We were served with a packaged drink on the flight, but that's fine for such a short hop.


Some meta info on the flight:

Flight: Air Caraibes TX 306
Departure from: Fort-de-France Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport, FDF, France
Take off from: Runway 10, length 3,000 m / 9,843 ft
Arrival into: Pointe-à-Pitre Le Raizet Airport Aéroport Guadeloupe Pôle Caraïbes, PTP, France
Landing on: Runway 12, length 3,500 m / 11,483 ft
Continuing to: Grand Case Airport (Aérodrome de Grand-Case Espérance), Saint-Martin, France
Distance: 120 miles / 194 km
Duration: 35 minutes
Travel Class: Classe Soleil (Economy)
Seat: 3A
Passenger load: 30%
Travel season: March 2017
Plane: ATR 72-500 (72-212A)
Registration: F-OIJK
Delivered to Air Caraïbes: December 2006
Stored since: May 2018
Engines: 2 x Pratt & Whitney Canada PW100 (PW127F) Turboprop
Take-Off Thrust: 2,475 SHP each
Route via: Dominica (West Indies) and Marie-Galante in the Caribbean Sea



Here is the travel video:




Some impressions first from the pristine Martinique island:









Yes, this is the European Union:













Fort-de-France Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport:







Air Caraibes check-in desks:






French exit immigration checkpoints are unmanned (that should be against the rules, because all passengers (e.g. to Barbados) pass through here into one central departure area):





All pax have to pass this mediocre shop after clearing security:

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Empty airside area:





Air Antilles bird to Barbados (all pax sneaking out of France without an exit immigration check):







Mediocre Air Caraibes Madras Lounge:







Boarding by foot:







Going down the staircase to get to the Tarmac:





Out bird - ATR 72-500 (F-OIJK)











Comfortable seat pitch in an 2-2 all-economy configuration:







Pratt & Whitney Canada PW100 (PW127F) Turboprop engine:





Take off from Martinique Runway 10:







Last look at Martinique:





Passenger load is at approx. 35%:





Leaving EU airspace:





Dominica (this is an independant Caribbean nation):







Marie-Galante island - we are back in EU airpace:





First look at Guadeloupe:







Lining up for Runway 12 of Pointe-à-Pitre Le Raizet Airport Aéroport Guadeloupe Pôle Caraïbes:





Welcome to Guadeloupe:





On the tarmac at Point-a-Pitre:









Deboarding by foot:





Regional terminal:





An Air Caraibes A350-900 just arriving from Paris Orly:





Outside Guadeloupe airport:





Some impressions from Guadeloupe:













Here is again the travel report video:




Enjoy!

offerendum

Yeah, one of the most interesting parts of European Union.

flying_blue_white_red

Very nice TR, thanks for sharing.
That must be 1 of the 5 shortest French domestic routes!

Bretteee

Which island did you prefer? Reminds me of my ATR flight from Nice to Bastia on the Corsican airline.

hauteboy

And I've been on the longest! RUN-ORY on AF

warakorn

One may argue that CDG-LAX-PPT (Tahiti) is the longest domestic flight, since Tahiti is a collectivité d'outre-mer .

lazytom

Hmm, but with an intermediate stop in another country. Does everyone have to get off in LAX?

seat1C