The airline was originally established as
Société Caribéenne de Transports Aériens, and started operations in September 1994. In 2000,
Air Guadeloupe was acquired by
Groupe Dubreuil, which had previously established Air Vendée before the airline was acquired by
Air France, rebranding it as
Regional Airlines. The current Air Caraïbes was founded in July 2000 through the merger of various local airlines
Air Guadeloupe,
Air Martinique, Air Saint Barthélémy, and Air Saint Martin, and was created in response to the air transport needs of the French Caribbean territories. In 2002, the company flew 445,000 passengers and had €68 million in revenues. In July 2003, the airline received its first
ATR 72-500. On 12 December 2003, the airline began services to
Orly Airport from Guadeloupe and Martinique using an
Airbus A330-200. Air Caraïbes sold one of its Airbus A330-200s to the
French Air Force, where it was re-registered and became one of the
French presidential planes. On 13 December 2013, Air Caraïbes announced it had ordered the
Airbus A350, with a fleet of three A350-900s and three A350-1000s, the first of which were expected to be delivered in 2016 and 2020 respectively. On 14 December 2016, the airline received its first
ATR 72-600. The airline received its first A350-900 on 28 February 2017, and its first A350-1000 on 19 December 2019. However prior to the delivery of some of the airline's A350s, parent company Groupe Dubreuil allocated some to sister airline
French Bee, before ordering additional A350s for both airlines by June 2019. In 2024, the airline announced further fleet expansion plans with one A350-1000 and two ATR 72-600s to be delivered later in the year. ==Corporate affairs==