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Year after year, Saint-Barthélemy's success shows no signs of abating. At least according to the data contained in the airport's quarterly report. In fact, during the first three months of the current year, the number of passengers recorded reached 81,460. 27% more than in the first quarter of 2024. "Above all, it exceeded post-covid recovery levels for the first time," points out airport manager Fabrice Danet. This suggests that new attendance records could be set in 2025.
Enhanced services
According to Saint-Barth airport management, this new "boom" in the first three months of the year is driven by international traffic. This was due to the strengthening of airline services during the first quarter to Sint Maarten (+21.8% with 49,863 passengers), San Juan (+21.2% with 15,880 passengers), Antigua (+42.3% with 1,515 passengers) and Anguilla (+7.9% with 2,451 passengers). In addition, 7,415 passengers used connections to and from Pointe-à-Pitre (+217.29% on 2024) and 3,820 to and from Grand Case (-5.05%).
Fabrice Danet also notes that January saw a 21.3% increase in passenger numbers over 2024 levels, with 26,802 passengers recorded. This trend was driven by connections to San Juan (+14.7%) and Juliana (+14.1%). Growth then continued at a very good level in February (+35% with 25,621 passengers), followed by "a significant increase" in traffic in March (+25.6% with almost 29,037 passengers, "a record", says Fabrice Danet).
"Managing the risk of saturation as best we can
For the airport, which remains a small-scale structure, the challenge remains to absorb this flow of movements and passengers. The manager explains: "The airport strives to manage the risks associated with operating and saturating its infrastructure as effectively as possible.The number of movements rose to 331 on January 5, 2025, then to 308 on March 22, with 190 movements on average days during the 1st quarter. The coordination of movements is also a vector of regulation currently being discussed with the civil aviation authorities to define traffic control solutions in line with the platform's capacity. "
There's another factor to keep an eye on. Particularly on the eve of the possible disappearance of Air Antilles, which is in a poor financial position (see opposite). On the route between Saint-Barthélemy and Pointe-à-Pitre, two airlines have been competing in recent months: Air Antilles and Air Inter Iles, an offshoot of Saint-Barth Executive. In the first quarter, Air Antilles carried 2,296 passengers on 444 movements, representing 6.7 passengers per flight and a load factor of 45% (15 seats sold). For its part, Air Inter Iles carried 3,159 passengers on 743 flights, representing 4.2 passengers per journey and a load factor of 53% (eight seats sold).
In the first quarter, Winair was the leading carrier by a wide margin, with 37,578 passengers. Tradewind Aviation was a distant second with 17,073 passengers, followed by Saint-Barth Commuter with 10,252.
