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A driver watches through the car window as the plane passes just above the road

Saint Barthélemy

Gustaf III Airport: The Saint-Barthélemy Approach

December 2007

When these photographs were taken in 2007, the airport at Saint-Jean was known as Gustaf III Airport. The name referred to King Gustav III of Sweden, under whose reign Sweden acquired Saint-Barthélemy from France in 1784. The island returned to French administration in 1878.

The airport’s single concrete runway, designated 10/28, measures 2,119 feet (646 meters) long and 59 feet (18 meters) wide. It lies between the Col de la Tourmente and Saint-Jean Bay. Aircraft approaching Runway 10 cross the elevated terrain and roadway immediately before descending toward the runway. At the opposite end, the runway terminates beside the beach.

French aviation regulations classify the airfield as restricted-use. Aircraft must have suitable performance characteristics, and pilots must complete specialized theoretical and practical training addressing the airport’s terrain, turbulence, approach procedures, and short runway.

These photographs document an Air Caraïbes Express Cessna 208B Grand Caravan approaching Runway 10 over the Col de la Tourmente. The sequence records the unusually close relationship among the aircraft, roadway, hillside, runway, and bay that defines the Saint-Barthélemy approach.

Current Context

In 2015, the airport was renamed Saint-Barthélemy–Rémy de Haenen Airport in honor of Rémy de Haenen, the aviation pioneer who completed the first airplane landing on the island in 1946 and later served as mayor. Gustaf III remains widely used as the airport’s former and alternate name.

Twin-engine propeller plane on short final, silhouetted above a grassy ridge at dusk
Gear down and props turning, the aircraft descends past the ridgeline scrub
Wings level against bright cloud as the plane clears the top of the hill
Underside of a twin-propeller aircraft passing directly overhead, wheels extended
Close pass of a white twin-engine plane with orange and blue stripes, propellers blurred
Looking straight down the short runway toward Saint-Jean Bay, a small plane on the concrete
Light aircraft crossing low over hillside villas at the far side of Saint-Jean Bay
Twin turboprop drops toward the runway just beyond a vehicle parked at the roadside
Fixed landing gear skims the scrub as the turboprop reaches the top of the approach
A driver watches through the car window as the plane passes just above the road
Nose and spinning props of the turboprop filling the sky above a blue van
Belly and landing gear of the aircraft crossing the road, van roofline in the foreground
Seen from above, a twin-engine plane on the narrow runway between roadside and bay
Single-engine turboprop on approach against a bank of towering cumulus
Air Caraïbes Express Cessna Caravan on final, registration F-OHQU on the rear fuselage
"Air Caraïbes Express" lettering along the fuselage as the Caravan passes overhead

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