The twelve atolls on which there exist appropriate means of accommodation for tourists are all within reach of air transport facilities. It is worth mentioning that by 1998, 31 out of the 74 atolls and islands in the archipelago  already possessed aerodromes

Improving the air communications system.

In terms of the number of flight arrivals and departures per atoll in 1998, the situation is as follows:

Rangiroa, Manihi, Arutua, Tikehau and Fakarava were the most frequently served atolls, with 3 593, 1 032, 576, 522 and 471 scheduled flights. The landings which occur on Hao involve non-civilian, especially freight aircraft, and have therefore not been included in the number of tourist flights. 

The following map shows the increase in the number of passenger arrivals + departures (A+D) which  occurred between 1989 and 1998:

At 90% of all the aerodromes on the archipelago, the passenger traffic showed an unprecedented increase of  60 to 718%. Only three atolls obtained negative scores (shown in blue on the map), including  Anuanuraro and Hikueru, where no flights were running in1996 and 1998.

This general trend is confirmed by the graph on the archipelago as a whole, rather just the atolls, in which the density of the air traffic is given in millions of passenger-kilometers transported. This information was provided by the department "Statistiques du trafic aérien en Polynésie française - 1997" and interpreted by G. Blanchet at the I.R.D. 

The curves on the graph show that the number of passengers carried progressed steadily throughout the period under consideration. It can be seen from the map and from the results of the study carried out on the atoll resources that the pattern of growth was stronger in the Northern  Tuamotu sector, where 73% of all the air traffic was concentrated in 1998.

One of the factors contributing to this growth was the modernisation of the fleet of aircraft. 95% of all the flights were being carried out in 1998 by aircraft of the TRA type (turbo-aircraft with 46 to 66 seats), as compared with only 86% in 1988, when Dornier planes (228 twin engine 18-seaters) were still carrying 14% of all the traffic. The older aircraft are still running between the islands of the archipelago, especially between Hao and the Eastern Tuamotu, which do not have suitable runways to be able to handle larger aircraft.

There are three airline companies operating in the Tuamotu-Gambier archipelago. The largest of these is  "Air Tahiti" , a subsidiary of the international company "Air Tahiti Nui". This company handles most of the passenger transport (including that of both residents and tourists) as well as the freight transport.

As proof of its dynamism, in  1999, "Air Tahiti Nui" acquired an A340-200 Airbus, which has since then been carrying out  the company's scheduled flights between  Papeete and Los Angeles and Papeete and Tokyo.

The company "Wan Air" is owned by Mr. R. Wan, the main black pearl producer in Tahiti. This company's fleet of aircraft is used to run Mr. Wan's pearl farms, especially at Les Gambiers in Southern Marutea. They sometime assist the third airline company, "Air Ararchipelagos",  with their tourist charter flights, however.