Papeete the largest cruise port in French Polynesia (overseas territory of France since 1946). It is located on Tahiti Island (the largest of Windward Islands) and annually handles around 2 million cruise ship tourists. Papeete Town has total area approx 17 km2 (7 mi2) and population around 26,000.
City's growth was boosted after moving the nuclear weapon test range from Algeria to the attols Mururoa and Fangataufa - approx 1500 km (930 mi) to the east of Tahiti. This led to the building of Faaa International Airport - opened in 1962, and located just 5 km (3 mi) southwest from downtown Papeete. Faaa is currently the only international airport in French Polynesia. Faaa Airport is served by the airlines:
- Air Tahiti (domestic inter-island flights only), Aircalin (Noumea New Caledonia)
- Air Tahiti Nui (connecting with Auckland NZ, Los Angeles USA, Paris, Tokyo)
- Air France (with Paris, Los Angeles USA)
- Air New Zealand (with Auckland)
- French Bee (with Paris, San Francisco USA)
- Hawaiian Airlines (with Honolulu)
- LATAM Chile (with Easter Island, Santiago)
- United Airlines (with San Francisco USA)
Regularly scheduled ferries connect Papeete with Moorea and Bora Bora. Port's high cruising season is June-August. Papeete is included in the cruise ship schedules of major luxury cruise companies like Princess, Oceania, Silversea, RSSC-Regent, Seabourn, Windstar. Papeete is often visited on repositioning cruises between Australia and Alaska (usually via Hawaii).
As homeport for Paul Gaugin Cruises, Papeete serves turnarounds (roundtrip itineraries) by MS Paul Gaugin to French Polynesian destinations in Marquesas, Tuamotus and Society Islands. In Papeete are also homeported two of world's most famous "cargo cruise ships" - Aranui 3 (2002) and Aranui 5 (2015). Both are Ro-Pax vessels offering Papeete cruise itineraries (2-week long roundtrips) visiting ports in Marquesas and Society Islands.