I recently wrote about my experience at St. Barts Airport (SBH), which has to be one of the coolest airports in the world for aviation geeks. The most common way to travel to and from St. Barts is to fly with Winair.
Continue reading: Flying With Winair, A Pleasant, Efficient, Safe Caribbean Airline
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I'm glad you had a good experience with them. Mine was not quite that good.
First, they're simply not always reliable. People in St. Maarten refer to it as "When Air" - as in who knows when the flights - or if - will go. That's my experience precisely.
I was going to St. Barth's for the first time in April - flew into SXM from IAD on United and was supposed to connect to SBH on Win Air. On let's say a flight at 3PM. Well, as you note, the gate area for Win Air at SXM can be chaotic. There were multiple flights that afternoon as it was a Saturday. Lots of people. TLDR, my 3pm flight kept getting delayed (as did many others), people bribed their way on to earlier flights (I saw multiple instances of people just handing $100 bills to the staff to get their parties on the earlier flights that were leaving late), and eventually, around 5:30PM, they announced all flights for the rest of the day were canceled, stranding a good 50-60 people who had been ammassing there all afternoon. What followed was a frantic dash to get luggage, ask at the Win Air desk for rebooking (nothing available for the next two days, we were told)., then a frantic pairing up with other stranded passengers to take taxis to the ferry dock for the last ferry to Saint Barth. It was mayhem, but at least I got to St Barth rather than be stranded over night in SXM. To their credit, I wrote to their cusotmer service the next morning and was promptly issued a refund for the outbound portion, but still. It was stressful, and, as you point out, service was indifferent.
My flight back from SBH to SXM was scenic and on time, though. So... it works, but be prepared for chaos. Several people I talked to in the gate area all mentioned that it was always chaotic and all recommended to go through San Juan on Tradedwinds as an alternative (but that's SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive....)
Alas, I agree, - it's a neat little airline when it works, and SBH is a great place. I enjoyed my time there.
If I hadn't come to trust OMAAT over many years, I would suspect this is a sponsored post though it is similar to one you wrote in 2023. Ben, Have you read the reviews of Winair? They are notoriously unreliable with terrible customer service in the event of frequent delays and flight cancellations. Jason, who posted his experience, is similar to my own trying to get out of St Bart's, expect in my case, it was impossible to get a refund despite their cancelling the flight. I ended up just using my travel insurance to compensate for the additional costs of booking a taxi and ferry to get to St. Maarten.
It has a whopping 2.5/5 on tripadvisor with 163 out of 275 reviewers rating them as "terrible". Other reviews on trustpilot, airlinequality and reddit are similarly bad. I'm very glad you've had good anecdotal experiences, but I suggest you add some context of the broader consumer sentiment toward the airline.
Obviously , too many passengers , crowding in to a 13 seat airplane , was the cause . Passengers ought to have controlled themselves and not all gone at once . Rather than crowding in , they ought to limit their numbers to the 13 seats on the airplane . duh .
If the passengers had not crowded into a 13 seat airplane , everything would have been cool . One would not be "trying to get out of St.Barts" , if one had not gone amongst a large mob . WinAir was correct in cancelling the flight if passengers don't control themselves .
@ Jason -- Yow, that sounds pretty awful, especially the bribing part, if that's what was really going on. I've only had reliable flights with them, so obviously can't speak to that, but I added a note to the post about the airline probably not being great when there are irregular operations.
@ Justin -- I appreciate the other perspectives, and I added something to my post about that. I've only had on-time flights with the airline, but it's clear that when there are irregular operations, it's pretty unpleasant (which isn't surprising, based on the indifference I've noticed among ground staff). Looking at Flightradar24, I'd say the airline generally operates quite reliably, in the scheme of things, especially for the Caribbean. But of course when things go wrong, that doesn't get you far!
I don't know what you're talking about. My experience with WinAir was 2 years ago and there was no 'large mob'. It was cancelled before I had gotten to the airport.
I’ve taken Winair on SXM-SBH, and it was ‘stressful’ to say the least. They’re often delayed, communication is minimal, and when things go wrong, like a mechanical issues, you’re pretty much out of luck. If I were to return, I would consider their competitors, but I’m not sure if they’re much better. Anyone try St Barth Commuter?
Thank you for sharing your experience, Jason. ‘Chaos’ is the single best word to describe Winair. I’m glad it wasn’t just me. Phew.
SBH Commuter is the way to go. Much more seamless transfer at SXM too vs WinAir
"Chaos" might be a correct word to describe the passengers , but not s small airplane .
If 50 people were left waiting , then 63 showed up for a 13 seat airplane , no ? Arithmetic.
I wouldn't blame the airline ... the passengers were too numerous .
lol. maybe we can be Lucky's first "fulsome" youtube interview
though I'm afraid I'd be a tad boring
@Alert. Again, what the heck are you talking about? You were not there, this was not my experience. You seem to be referring to someone else? My experience involved the flight being cancelled day-of, even as other airlines were flying. Luckily, my hotel (the Rosewood) was well-experienced with WinAir's frequent cancellations and proactively monitored the flights for me and helped to guide us to an alternate plan to go to the Ferry terminal. I never even made it to the airport. WinAir cancelled the flight, provided no refund, because apparently they're not obligated to, provided no information proactively about the cancellation (hotel concierge had to deal with it). They tried to blame weather despite the fact that other airlines were flying all day and didn't have any cancellations.
I’ve flown LE, TJ, and WN to SBH.
Both TJ Tradewinds Aviation, and LE St. Barth Executive are vastly superior operations vs. WinAir.
Indeed, I have experienced the multiple cancellations and roll the dice departure shenanigans of WN.
Just to add another data point. I flew Winair from SMX to ANU on one of their ATR45s. My flight on May 22, 2026 had assigned seating, took the bus to the remote gate, departed on time, and arrived 20 min early. Everything went fine and no issues. I agree that the level of service was, well, minimal.
I did visit St. Barth but not by flying as I was sailing into there. I spent a couple hours at the observation deck and down in the ground to watch the approaches into SBH and got some incredible videos! I was checking Flightradar24's arrival info, and my observation was that not all scheduled flights actually happened from various airlines for whatever reasons.
Tomas, I'm glad it wasn't just me; however, I wish WinAir would improve itself. Sheesh!