Air Caraïbes

When a big Airbus with “Air Caraïbes” titles taxis out for takeoff at Paris Orly, you see a piece of the Caribbean in the middle of Europe. Air Caraïbes is the airline of the French Antilles: at home on Guadeloupe, with a long-haul fleet of A350s and A330s and a small turboprop network between the islands. For spotters in Central Europe it is rare, but for Caribbean travelers and fans of Maho Beach it is a familiar face. Here you learn how to recognize the airline, tell its aircraft apart and where you have the best chances.

Air Caraïbes at a glance

Air Caraïbes is a French scheduled airline based in Les Abymes on Guadeloupe, right at Pointe-à-Pitre Airport. It came into being in 2000, when several small island companies – including Air Guadeloupe, Air Martinique, Air Saint-Martin and Air Saint-Barthélemy – were merged into one airline. At first, Air Caraïbes was a purely regional airline between the islands.

It took its big step at the end of 2003: with an Airbus A330-200, Air Caraïbes began transatlantic service to Paris Orly and thus went head to head with Air France, which until then had dominated the market between the mainland and the Antilles. Later Cayenne in French Guiana and destinations in the Dominican Republic and Haiti were added.

The owner is Groupe Dubreuil, a family holding from the Vendée on the French Atlantic coast. The same group also owns French Bee, the low-cost long-haul airline that was founded in 2016, initially as French Blue. Both airlines share a lot of know-how – and, with the Airbus A350, also their most important aircraft type.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code TX: appears in the flight number, so on the departure board and ticket.
• ICAO code FWI: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers. The three letters can be read as “French West Indies”, that is, the French Antilles.
• Callsign FRENCH WEST: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

With Air Caraïbes in particular, the difference between the IATA and ICAO code is practical: if you search the tracker for “TX”, you often find nothing, because it shows FWI there. Why flight number and callsign are two different things is explained in the article Callsign and flight number. For an overview of the whole code system, see IATA and ICAO codes explained.

The fleet: A350, A330 and ATR

Air Caraïbes’ fleet consists of two worlds: large twinjets for the Atlantic and turboprops for the short hops between the islands. According to the common reference works, it looks like this (as of 2025/2026):

Type	Count	Seats	Use	Spotter note
Airbus A350-1000	4	429 (three classes); per reference works one aircraft with 480 seats in two classes	Paris Orly–Antilles	Longest type in the fleet, six-wheel main landing gear
Airbus A350-900	3	389	Paris Orly–Caribbean, also Sint Maarten from fall 2026	In the fleet since February 2017
Airbus A330-300	2	354	Long-haul	Oldest generation in long-haul service
ATR 72-600	4	74	Regional network in the Caribbean	Not to be seen in Europe

The first Airbus A350-900 joined Air Caraïbes in February 2017. At the end of 2019 the first A350-1000 followed – a special feature for spotters: the aircraft with the registration F-HMIL had previously been used as a test aircraft at Airbus, where it flew as F-WLXV, before being converted for Air Caraïbes. In the three-class version, the A350-1000 offers 24 seats in Business “Madras”, 45 in Premium Economy “Caraïbes” and 360 in Economy “Soleil”.

The Airbus A330-300 is what remains of a once larger A330 fleet. Air Caraïbes also used to fly the shorter A330-200, with which it all began in 2003. The first of these aircraft was later bought by the French state, which uses it as a government aircraft. The manufacturer of all long-haul jets is Airbus.

In the Caribbean, the ATR 72-600 from ATR does the work. It connects Guadeloupe, Martinique and Saint-Martin and needs only short runways to do so. If you photograph it in Pointe-à-Pitre or Grand Case, think about the propellers: the guide Photographing propellers explains which shutter speed makes the blades visibly turn.

A350-900, A350-1000 or A330? How to tell them apart

On the apron at Orly, the three long-haul types often stand side by side. A few features let you sort them quickly.

Between the two A350 versions, the main landing gear helps most: the A350-1000 stands on two bogies with six wheels each, the A350-900 on two with four each. The A350-1000 is also around seven meters longer – this is especially noticeable on takeoff, when the fuselage looks conspicuously stretched relative to the wingspan. The guide Recognizing aircraft types gives you the basics of telling types apart.

How to recognize Air Caraïbes

The most important recognition feature is the “Air Caraïbes” titles on the fuselage. Added to that is the emblem of the “arbre du voyageur”, the traveler’s tree – a plant that is common in the Caribbean. The symbol has accompanied the airline since its beginnings; the look was modernized in 2015. The advertising slogan “Haute en Couleurs” (roughly: “full of color”) underlines the Caribbean look.

Another clue is the location: in Europe you practically only see Air Caraïbes at Paris Orly. A big A350 with a French registration at Orly that can’t be assigned to Air France, Corsair or French Bee is very likely Air Caraïbes.

The route network

The backbone is the long-haul service from Paris Orly to Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe), Fort-de-France (Martinique), Cayenne (French Guiana) and Saint-Martin. From the Antilles, Air Caraïbes flies on to destinations in the region, such as Port-au-Prince, Santo Domingo or Punta Cana. According to French reference works, new destinations such as Samaná in the Dominican Republic and an announced connection to the Bahamas were recently added – the exact schedules change by season.

A novelty in fall 2026 is of interest to spotters: according to a report from May 2026, Air Caraïbes uses the A350-900 on the Paris Orly–Sint Maarten route from mid-October 2026, twice a week. Princess Juliana Airport is world-famous because of Maho Beach – approaches to runway 10 pass low over the beach. An A350 on final approach over Maho Beach is one of the shots that fits on every spotter bucket list.

Spotting Air Caraïbes: Orly, the Caribbean and travel tips

Paris Orly is the only European airport where you regularly see Air Caraïbes. The number of Caribbean flights per day is manageable – a look at Orly’s current schedule saves you idle time at the spot. If you’re in Paris anyway, a detour to Orly is therefore worthwhile – especially since French Bee, Transavia France and Corsair are also based there. Charles de Gaulle, Air France’s hub, is described on our page on Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport; you won’t find Air Caraïbes there, though.

In the Caribbean, Pointe-à-Pitre on Guadeloupe and Fort-de-France on Martinique are the home airports. Here the long-haul and ATR fleets stand side by side. On Saint-Martin the action is split between two airports: Grand Case on the French side for the ATR, Princess Juliana on the Dutch side for the jets.

Whether Orly or the Caribbean: read the runway direction before spotting. The guide to the runway direction in use at the airport shows you how. In the tropical light of the Caribbean the sun stands almost vertical at midday – for good photos, you’d better plan for the morning or late afternoon. More on this in the article Planning for sun position.

Common mix-ups

• Mixing up Air Caraïbes and French Bee – same group, same A350 types, but a different livery and ICAO code FBU instead of FWI.
• Searching the tracker for TX – it usually shows the ICAO code FWI, not the IATA code.
• Logging an A350-1000 as an A350-900 – count the wheels on the main landing gear: six per bogie on the -1000.
• Expecting Air Caraïbes at Charles de Gaulle – the airline flies from Orly.
• Equating the TX flight number with the operator – via codeshare, French Bee can also operate the flight.
• Automatically assigning F- registrations to Air France – the prefix F- stands only for France, not for an airline. More at Aircraft country codes.

Conclusion

Air Caraïbes is not an airline that flies across your path by chance. If you want to see it, you have to travel to Paris Orly or straight to the Caribbean. In return you get a compact, modern fleet of A350-900s, A350-1000s and A330-300s, complemented by ATR 72-600s between the islands. With the A350 over Maho Beach, the airline also gets a shot from fall 2026 that spotters worldwide wish for.