Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport

Cayenne – Félix Éboué Airport formerly Rochambeau Airport
IATA: CAY ICAO: SOCA
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Guiana[1]
Serves	Cayenne, French Guiana
Location	Matoury
Elevation AMSL	26 ft / 8 m
Coordinates	04°49′11″N 52°21′43″W
Website	guyane.aeroport.fr
Map
CAY Location in French Guiana
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 08/26 3,205 10,515 Asphalt
Statistics (2023)
Passengers 481,961 Passenger traffic change 1.4% Aircraft movements 5,265 Aircraft movements change 20.2%
Source : Aeroport.fr,[2] French AIP,[3] UAF,[4] DAFIF[5][6]

Cayenne – Félix Éboué Airport (French: Aéroport de Cayenne – Félix Éboué, IATA: CAY, ICAO: SOCA) is French Guiana's main international airport. It is located near the commune of Matoury, 13 kilometres (8 mi) southwest of French Guiana's capital city of Cayenne. It is managed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of French Guiana (CCI Guyane).[1]

Air Guyane Express has its headquarters on the airport property.[7]

History

The first airfield at Cayenne, called "Gallion," was built in 1943 in ten months by the U.S. Army Air Corps as a base allowing bombers to reach Africa. Though quickly abandoned upon the completion of the new airport, it can still be found very close to the aerodrome.

The new airport was first given the name "Rochambeau" in reference to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, commander-in-chief of the French troops in the American Revolutionary War.[8] It was purchased by France in 1949.

This name was controversial because the airport's namesake's son, Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau, harshly repressed the Haitian Revolution during the Saint-Domingue expedition. Christiane Taubira, then-Member of the National Assembly of France for Guiana, requested in 1999 that the name be changed. Multiple proposals were submitted, including Cépérou, a seventeenth-century indigenous chief. It was finally renamed Félix Éboué Airport in 2012, the change becoming official in January of that year.[9][10] The code for the airport remains CAY.[11]

Félix Eboué Airport serves approximately 400,000 passengers per year.[12]

Facilities

The airport has an elevation of 24 feet (7 m) above mean sea level. It has one paved runway.[3] It is open to public air traffic and international air traffic.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Air Caraïbes	Paris–Orly
Air France	Belém,[13] Fortaleza (begins 22 April 2025),[14][15] Fort-de-France, Paris–Charles de Gaulle,[16] Pointe-à-Pitre, St. Maarten[17]
Guyane Express Fly	Camopi, Grand Santi, Maripasoula, Saint-Laurent du Maroni, Saül[18]
Sky High	Santo Domingo–Las Américas

Statistics

Annual passenger traffic at CAY airport. See Wikidata query.

Passengers[19]

2000	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
457 168	375 844	374 394	386 979	385 142	400 025	423 849	435 440	495 994

See also

• Transport in French Guiana
• List of airports in French Guiana

References

1. CCI Guyane
2. "Résultats d'activité des aéroports français 2018" (PDF). aeroport.fr. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
3. SOCA – Cayenne Félix Eboué. AIP from French Service d'information aéronautique, effective 23 January 2025. CAR SAM NAM
4. "Aéroport de Cayenne – Rochambeau" (in French). L'Union des Aéroports Français. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
5. Airport information for SOCA^[usurped] from DAFIF (effective 26 October 2006)
6. Airport information for CAY at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
7. "Directory: World airlines." Flight International. 16–22 March 2004. 65.
8. "CCI Guyane - Aéroport / Accueil". Archived from the original on 11 November 2008.
9. Laurent Marot (21 January 2012). "Guyana found memory by changing the name of the airport". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 7 June 2013.
10. order of 4 January 2012, J.O. 8 January 2012, NOR TRAA1200009A, http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000025114748
11. Stéphanie Bouillaguet (17 January 2012). "Rochambeau has already become Félix-Éboué". France-Guiana. Retrieved 7 June 2013.
12. "Cayenne airport". Aeroports Voyages. Retrieved 22 July 2018. Comprising of a single terminal building, the airport handles roughly 400,000 passengers per year.
13. "GOL / Air France Codeshare Routes Expansion From May 2024". Aeroroutes.
14. "Air France terá voos inéditos entre Fortaleza e Caiena, na Guiana Francesa". Panrotas (in Brazilian Portuguese). January 2025. Retrieved 17 January 2025.
15. "Governo do Ceará anuncia nova rota internacional da Air France, conectando Fortaleza a Caiena, a primeira do Nordeste". Governo do Ceará (in Brazilian Portuguese). 17 January 2025. Retrieved 17 January 2025.
16. "Air France NS24 Cayenne Service Adjustment". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
17. "AIR: Air France opens a new line between Pointe-à-Pitre and Sint Maarten | FAXINFO | SXM Talks". 25 October 2023.
18. "Accueil". Guyane Express Fly. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
19. Source : Site de l'UAF Archived 29 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine

External links

Media related to Cayenne-Félix-Éboué Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• CCI Guyane (in French)
• Aeronautical chart and airport information for Cayenne Felix Eboue Airport at SkyVector
• Current weather for Cayenne / Rochambeau at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for Cayenne-Rochambeau Airport at Aviation Safety Network