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The future looks bleaker by the day for Air Antilles. After its air carrier certificate was suspended on December 8 by the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC), followed by its exclusion from BSP France by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on December 18, the administrative court ordered the company to pay €58,166 in unpaid debts to the Martinique Aimé Césaire Airport Company (Samac). Yet another blow to the company.
According to information reported by our colleagues at RCI and La 1ère in articles published online on Wednesday, January 14, the first case dates back to March 2025. SAGPC, Société aéroportuaire Guadeloupe Pôle Caraïbe, which manages Maryse Condé Airport, filed a request to have Air Antilles ordered to pay unpaid debts. This was for an estimated amount of €602,217, according to RCI, which specifies that the sum corresponds to state and airport fees, water and electricity bills. Fortunately for the company, the administrative court judge dismissed the applicant's claim. But this was only the first legal warning.
Last September, Samac took over and referred the matter to the administrative court. "The company that manages Lamentin airport was claiming a total of €159,391," writes RCI. This amount corresponds to Air Antilles' arrears for public domain occupancy fees and collection costs.
For the record, in September 2024, the airline signed two agreements with Samac for temporary occupation of public property for a period of two years. "This mainly concerns the occupation of offices and retail space," reports the Soualiga Post in an article published on January 13.
In this case, the court noted that Air Antilles failed to pay 28 invoices between September 2024 and November 2025. This represents an unpaid amount of €48,540.
Added to this sum is a claim for €84,440 for the payment of debts related to the temporary occupation of public property without title. This claim covered the period from December 2023 to December 2024, even though the new Air Antilles company did not yet have its operating license, which it obtained in May 2024. The amount of these claims was therefore reduced to €9,625 by the administrative court.
Rendered on December 24, the court decision therefore orders Air Antilles to pay a fine of €58,166. This is accompanied by a lump sum compensation of €320 for collection costs and late payment interest. This is a poisoned Christmas present that adds to the woes of the company, which is majority-owned by the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Martin.
For the time being, the DGAC has still not made a decision on lifting the suspension of the air carrier certificate. As for Air Antilles' provisional operating license, it expires at the end of the month. "It really doesn't look good," says one employee. More than €20 million has been injected into the new Air Antilles by the Collectivité of Saint-Martin and its partner Edéis since the partial takeover of the company in September 2023.
