Looking down from high above at the unreal, Tiffany-blue lagoon and overwater bungalows, with the towering Mt. Otemanu adding an incredible backdrop to the beautiful horizon—this is the view you can expect right out your window when flying with Air Tahiti! Are you excited just thinking about it?

Tahiti Travel Info

★ 【Bora Bora Activities】Shark & Ray Snorkeling Day Trip｜Jet Skiing｜ATV Tours
★ 【Moorea Activities】ATV & Jet Skiing｜ATV Tours｜Jet Skiing
★ 【Island Hopping】Bora Bora Flights & Shuttle Boat｜Moorea Ferry
★ 【Accommodation】Tahiti Accommodation Guide
★ 【Guides】Pre-trip Prep｜Budget Tips｜Bora Bora Attractions｜Moorea Attractions

With the rise of tourism, more and more international airlines are flying into Tahiti's international airport (PPT). While international options have grown, domestic flights between the islands of French Polynesia are still exclusively operated by one airline: Air Tahiti. That's right! The famous South Pacific vacation paradise, Tahiti, is actually just one of the islands in the French Polynesia archipelago. Not only is it the largest island, but it's also the economic, cultural, and political hub, home to the region's only international airport.

Aside from the neighboring Moorea and the slightly further Huahine and Raiatea, which can be reached by ferry from the main island of Tahiti, getting to the outer islands requires a flight. A crucial tip: before booking your hotels on these farther islands, make sure you can secure seats on Air Tahiti! The tickets aren't exactly cheap. For instance, a short round-trip flight to Bora Bora costs roughly between $300 and $500 USD, depending on whether it's peak or off-peak season.

Let's first introduce Faa'a International Airport (PPT) in Papeete, Tahiti. Unlike most international airports where you disembark through a jet bridge, everyone arriving on international flights here walks directly down the stairs onto the tarmac. It’s just a short walk of a few hundred meters to the terminal building!

Immediately upon entering, you're greeted by… passionate Tahitian music and dancing!!!! Ukuleles, straw hats, flower crowns, floral shirts, and enthusiastic dancers completely ignited our vacation mood! Oh my gosh, this doesn't feel like an airport at all!

Next, as you wait in line to pass through customs, you'll notice displays of local cultural artifacts alongside the queue. It definitely keeps the wait from feeling boring!

There's also a huge rack of free maps and tourist information you can grab. It felt more like lining up at a tourist attraction's ticket booth than waiting for immigration!

After smoothly passing through immigration, you'll spot cute, large wooden carvings and a few duty-free shops nearby.

There are even wooden carvings right next to the baggage carousel, welcoming you with "Welcome to paradise"!

After grabbing our luggage, we followed the signs and walked out.

Once outside, you'll see the sign below. If you're connecting to a domestic flight or grabbing a taxi directly in Tahiti, just turn right!

Next up, if you're transferring to Air Tahiti to head to other islands, just follow this check-in sign and turn right →

And there it is, the Air Tahiti check-in counter! The airport is small, so it only took us about two minutes to walk there.

Right next to the queue line, there's this super vacation-vibes mural. Is it meant for tourists to snap photos while they wait? A painted pair of angel wings woven from tropical island flowers—they basically want us to start snapping away right in the airport!

At the counter, the first step is to check in the luggage we just picked up from our international flight.

Air Tahiti's carry-on baggage rules are quite strict—it cannot exceed 5 kg. If your rolling suitcase can be checked, we highly recommend checking it in. However, that day we only had one backpack on us, and they didn't ask us to weigh it. Checked baggage allowances also vary depending on your ticket class. You can see the specific carry-on and checked luggage rules in the image below:

The check-in staff even wore flowers behind their ears~~~ and had huge smiles on their faces the whole time!

Connection Time Info

★ International to Domestic Flight: Allow 90 minutes
★ Domestic to International Flight: Allow 120 minutes
★ Air Tahiti Domestic to Air Tahiti Domestic: Allow 45 minutes

When we were booking our Air Tahiti tickets, we agonized over how much layover time we should leave. The Air Tahiti website has set "minimum connecting times" for different types of transfers. If an international flight is delayed and you miss your connection because you didn't leave this "minimum connecting time," Air Tahiti reserves the right to reduce or cancel any compensation (info as of Jan 2025). For the most up-to-date details, always check the Air Tahiti official website.

Although the official website says you only need a minimum of 90 minutes for an international-to-domestic transfer, many travelers online mentioned that getting through immigration depends heavily on luck—sometimes the crowds are huge. Plus, quite a few international travelers suggested leaving 3 hours. Our international flight arrived around 6:00 AM. Worried that our incoming flight or customs might be delayed and we'd miss an 8:30 AM departure, we ended up booking the 10:30 AM flight to Bora Bora.

As it turned out… everything went surprisingly smooth that day! We were out by roughly 7:00 AM 😆 We headed straight to the Air Tahiti counter to line up and told the ground staff we wanted to waitlist for the 8:30 AM flight! She said the chances were slim because the flight was fully booked, but she still told us to come back to her counter at 7:40 AM for an update. We took this chance to wander around the airport!

There's a McDonald's right next to the Air Tahiti check-in counters (we weren't hungry, so we forgot to check if their menu had anything unique). Just looking at the advertisement photos reminds you that you're on a tropical island!

The doors in the background of the picture below are where we just came out after claiming our bags. Walking out of those doors, turn right for the Air Tahiti transfer counters, and turn left for the Departure hall.

Just out the doors and to the front left is a currency exchange counter, Tahiti Exchange.

If you need to exchange for Pacific Francs (XPF), whatever you do, DO NOT exchange money at the LA airport in the US! The ICE currency exchange at LAX gave a terrible rate of just 90 XPF per 1 USD, plus a $9.95 USD transaction fee—an exchange rate even worse than what we got at the Conrad resort! Before our trip, we mistakenly thought the exchange counters at the Tahiti airport would be closed on Sundays. We just wanted to exchange about $80 USD in the US for emergencies. But the ICE clerk tricked me into thinking the fees in Tahiti were incredibly high and percentage-based, constantly pushing me to exchange more… I ended up exchanging $232 USD in the US. Compared to the Tahiti rate of 97 XPF to 1 USD, plus their fees, that $232 cost me about $18-19 USD in losses… That’s just one of those hard-learned lessons you buy with money while traveling! For more details and tips on exactly how much cash you should exchange, check out our extended reading: Tahiti Pre-trip Prep

Right next to the currency exchange counter is a luggage storage facility. Prices vary depending on the size of your luggage.

There are absolutely no luggage storage spots in downtown Tahiti, so if you need to stash your bags, refer to the image below.

The airport also has counters for setting up Wi-Fi and renting cars. Because Kevin's Google phone could access the Google Fi network in French Polynesia (click this referral link to activate Google Fi and get a $20 USD call credit), we didn't buy local Wi-Fi.

Like any good airport, Tahiti also has a standard Information Centre for travelers.

We saw the tax refund sign, but since we didn't buy any expensive luxury items during our trip, we didn't bother looking into how to claim a tax refund.

The check-in counters for departing flights.

There's another mural with tropical floral angel wings next to the departure hall~

This one was super popular too, with lots of tourists lining up to take photos~

At 7:40 AM, we went back to the Air Tahiti counter as agreed, and we were told we had gotten seats off the waitlist!!! We were seriously overjoyed~~ Honestly, this airport is pretty small. In 20 minutes, we had taken all the photos we wanted to take and walked everywhere there was to walk. If we had to wait an extra two hours, we really wouldn't have known what to do 😆😆😆… Right next to the Air Tahiti counters is the entrance to the domestic flight departure lounge.

The departure lounge isn't very big, and it has one restaurant.

Here is the boarding gate. Air Tahiti boarding passes don't have assigned seats. When it's time, they'll announce boarding, and you just line up at the gate. Once you get on the plane, you can choose any seat you want.

Just like when we disembarked earlier, passengers don't use a jet bridge; we walk straight onto the tarmac to the plane~

Along the way, we even saw them loading the luggage, giving us a chance to double-check that our bags had made it 😆

All of Air Tahiti's planes are these propeller planes, which is super cool!

Boarding from the rear of the plane.

A look inside the cabin. The flight attendants wear island-style floral dresses with a flower tucked behind their ears. It perfectly matches the word "Tahiti" I had pictured in my mind, literally written all over their uniforms!

Important Tip! If you're flying Air Tahiti to Bora Bora, remember to sit in the front left or rear left seats. The view from the middle seats will be blocked by the wings. Cherry's personal favorite is the front left seat! Not only is the view out the window unobstructed by the wing, but you can also see the spinning propellers. It seemed like it had rained before our departure, and I'm not sure if it was because of that rain (maybe it washed the windows extra clean?), but the views during takeoff that day felt exceptionally crystal clear.

The island of Tahiti seen from the air after takeoff~

After leaving Tahiti, we quickly passed right by the neighboring Moorea.

Moorea has quite a lot of mountains. We actually stayed there for a few days after leaving Bora Bora. If you're interested in the details, check out 👉🏻 11 Must-Visit Attractions and Must-Eat Foods in Moorea!

After passing Moorea, there's a long stretch of just ocean views. The flight attendants came around with drinks, and we were thrilled to find out they were serving pineapple juice made locally in Moorea!

The cups were adorable too!

There are in-flight magazines to browse~ Seeing the flawless ocean and overwater bungalows on the cover, we couldn't wait to finally arrive in Bora Bora!

The magazine features Air Tahiti's route map. Taking a closer look, we realized how few islands in French Polynesia Cherry and Fish actually knew about—there are so many other islands out there!

As we got closer to Bora Bora, we first spotted Taha’a out the window.

Since it was our first time here, when we saw that beautiful lagoon from the air, we mistakenly thought we had already arrived in Bora Bora 😆!

Not long after passing Taha’a, we finally reached Bora Bora!

Mt. Otemanu with its peak hidden in the clouds.

First, we flew over the clusters of resorts~

Seeing the overwater bungalows from the sky was so cool; it felt like we were on a helicopter tour. Even though domestic flights can be pretty pricey, getting to see these stunning aerial views makes it feel like one of the main highlights of the trip itself!

Getting ready to disembark, barely containing our excitement about finally stepping foot on our dream island~

After stepping off the plane, we walked across the tarmac into the airport building~

As a side note: when flying back from Bora Bora to Tahiti, you'd logically assume that since we sat on the left going there, we should sit on the right coming back. However, on our return flight, we found out that there are things to see on both sides! If you sit on the right, you get great views of Bora Bora, but if you sit on the left, you get to see Moorea. It really just depends on which island you prefer to look at!

On our return flight, we sat in the rear right (the front seats were all taken). This is the photo we snapped of Bora Bora on the way back~ On the way there, we couldn't tell Taha’a and Bora Bora apart, but on the way back, the moment we saw Mt. Otemanu from the sky, we instantly knew it was Bora Bora! (Well, we did just spend six days staring at it 😆)

We were so reluctant to leave! Sitting in the back, we couldn't see the propellers, only the wings~ The windows on the return flight felt really blurry, so the photos turned out looking like they were covered by a veil~

Air Tahiti also has flights from Bora Bora directly to Moorea. But based on the prices at the time, those direct flights were almost $100 USD more expensive per ticket than flying back to Tahiti, and the flights were less frequent. Still, if you don't particularly want to go back to the main island of Tahiti and there's a flight available, booking a direct flight to Moorea is definitely worth considering! We only realized this after we had already paid for our tickets… 😓

If you're interested in our complete guide to transportation in Bora Bora, like how to take the free Air Tahiti shuttle boat to the resorts, be sure to check out our extended reading: The Ultimate Bora Bora Transportation Guide.

We have lots more articles on Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Moorea, covering must-visit attractions, overwater bungalow experiences, transport guides, and comprehensive travel plans. Keep reading below! 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

Guides & Itineraries

[Tahiti Travel Guide] Comprehensive Itinerary Planner | Weather, Visas, Transport, Exchange & Packing Info
[Tahiti Travel Guide] 9 Budget Tips for an Affordable Tahiti Trip (Itinerary Included)

Bora Bora

[Tahiti Travel Guide] 7 Must-Visit Attractions, Tours & Experiences in Bora Bora
[Tahiti · Bora Bora] Airport Transport Guide ☆ Free Air Tahiti Shuttle Boat ☆ Exploring Vaitape Port
[Tahiti · Bora Bora] An Intimate Day with Sharks and Rays ☆ Highly Recommended Bora Bora Tour
[Tahiti Overwater Bungalows] Dream Come True: Bora Bora Overwater Villa Room Tour! ☆ Conrad Bora Bora Nui
[Tahiti · Bora Bora] Conrad Resort Review | Experiencing 100% of Bora Bora's Beauty at Conrad Bora Bora Nui
[Tahiti Travel Guide] Views Just as Good as Overwater Bungalows? | Horizon View Suite | Conrad Bora Bora Nui
[Tahiti Travel Guide] What Kind of Room Can You Get with Points!? Lagoon View Suite Room Tour! | Conrad Bora Bora Nui
[Tahiti · Bora Bora] Romantic Dinner Under a Stunning Bora Bora Sunset | Bora Bora Yacht Club
Let's Go See Sea Turtles in Tahiti! Le Méridien Bora Bora Resort

Moorea & Tahiti Island

[Tahiti Travel Guide] 11 Must-Visit Attractions and Must-Eat Foods in Moorea!
[Tahiti · Moorea] How to Take the Ferry from Tahiti to Moorea ☆ Complete Transport Info ☆ Tahiti-Moorea Ferry
[Tahiti · Moorea] Stunning Ocean Views + Private Pool Villa ☆ Secret Moorea Accommodation Recommendation
[Tahiti · Moorea] Moorea ATV Island Tour ☆ Hitting the Two Must-Visit Viewpoints!
[Tahiti Travel Guide] 1 Tour, 5 Experiences | Must-Do Moorea Jet Skiing
[Tahiti · Tahiti] Tahiti Must-Eat Recommendation: Food Trucks ☆ Tahiti Food Truck

Other Travel Guides

★ Islands: Tahiti｜Maldives｜Fiji
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