The number of Covid-19 patients in the West Indies continues to skyrocket.

Especially in Martinique where the prefect advised people vulnerable to the virus to leave the island as soon as possible.

As a result, requests to change plane tickets have soared.

And airlines have to cope with the influx of travelers.  

The message was launched two days ago by the prefect of Martinique: in the extremely tense health context since the start of the week, tourists who are "vulnerable" are invited to leave the territory.

The island has one of the highest incidence rates in France, nearly 1,200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, as well as a hospital pressure of 227%.

But it is still necessary to be able to find a place in a plane which returns to the metropolis… To avoid the traffic jams at the airport, the airlines have employed the great means.

Bigger planes mobilized

Air France, Air Caraïbes and Corsair, the three main companies that serve the West Indies, have each increased their seat offer to allow an early return of tourists.

Air France, for example, has decided to mobilize the largest planes in its fleet, the Boeings 777-300 ER, which can carry 468 passengers ... 160 more than the planes usually assigned to Fort-de-France. .

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Similar decision at Corsair.

The company added 50 seats on Wednesday by mobilizing a larger capacity Airbus.

For its part, Air Caraïbes claims to have received 300 requests for early returns in 48 hours.

It was able to cope with it thanks to the seats still available in its planes.

No additional flights at the moment

But Air Caraïbes has decided to schedule a stopover in Fort-de-France on Friday for the flight between Saint-Martin and Orly airport in Paris, whose occupancy rate was not at the maximum.

The route had to be direct but thanks to this detour, the company recovers 150 seats.

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For the moment, the three companies have not planned any additional flights, but they reserve the possibility of doing so if the situation requires it.

All three have chosen to apply the same commercial conditions: no fees or price readjustments for ticket changes.