What Airlines Fly to Reunion Island

Roland Garros Airport processes roughly two million passengers each year, yet fewer than ten carriers maintain scheduled service to the island. The route network reflects Réunion's dual identity as a French overseas department and an Indian Ocean hub — most seats connect back to metropolitan France, while the remainder serve the Mascarene region and eastern African coast. Air France operates the backbone of transatlantic capacity, running daily Airbus A350 and Boeing 777 rotations from Paris Charles de Gaulle with flight times near eleven hours. Air Austral, Réunion's home carrier, mirrors that schedule with its own wide-body fleet and adds seasonal frequencies during July, August, and the December holiday window when demand from mainland France peaks. French Bee enters the market as a low-cost long-haul alternative, flying from Paris Orly three to four times weekly outside the high season, then increasing to near-daily service when schools break. Corsair rounds out the French operators with charter-heavy schedules that flex according to tour-operator contracts, typically serving Orly and occasionally Marseille or Lyon. Regional connectivity pivots through Mauritius, where Air Mauritius runs multiple daily hops on Airbus A319s and ATR turboprops covering the 230-kilometer gap in under an hour. This route functions as the primary connector for travelers originating in Asia, the Middle East, or southern Africa, since Mauritius holds far denser intercontinental links than Réunion. Air Austral also serves Antananarivo, Johannesburg, Mayotte, and the Comoros with varying frequency, cementing Réunion's role as a spoke in the western Indian Ocean network. Smaller operators like Ewa Air and Airlink have tested seasonal or charter service in recent years, but schedules remain fluid and contract-dependent. What airlines fly to Reunion Island depends partly on when you search — carrier participation shifts with the seasons. The November-to-April cyclone window sees modest frequency cuts on some regional routes, while the austral winter from May to September draws the highest seat counts as European holidaymakers chase warmer weather. Ticket availability tightens around French school holidays, particularly the two-week breaks in February, April, and October, when load factors on the Paris routes regularly exceed ninety percent. Booking three to four months ahead secures better fares and preserves seat choice on the direct services, which command a price premium over one-stop itineraries via Mauritius or Johannesburg. Roland Garros Airport's single-runway configuration and 05:00 to 23:45 operating window mean arrivals cluster in the early morning and late evening, with a midday lull when most aircraft sit on the ground for turnaround servicing. Long-haul flights from Paris typically land between 06:00 and 08:00 local time after overnight sectors, while return departures concentrate in the late afternoon to position for early-morning arrivals in France. Regional flights scatter across the day, though Mauritius connections align with intercontinental arrivals at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International to streamline same-day transits. The airport's website publishes live arrival and departure boards, and checking those schedules a few days before travel confirms gate assignments and any weather-related adjustments during the cyclone months.