Air France

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Air France Boeing 777-300ER.

Patrick Cardinal

Air France, French international airline originally formed in 1933 and today serving all parts of the globe. With British Airways, it was the first to fly the supersonic Concorde. Headquarters are in Paris.

On May 17, 1933, four airlines—Société Centrale pour l’Exploitation de Lignes Aériennes (founded 1919), Compagnie Internationale de Navigation (1920), Air Union (1923), and Air Orient (1929)—merged and negotiated with the French government to form a national system. A few months later, on August 30, with the support of the government, the combine merged with another line, Compagnie Générale Aéropostale (founded 1919), to form Air France, which in the years before World War II developed one of the most extensive networks in Europe. Nearly devastated by the war, the company resumed Paris-to-London service on Oct. 11, 1945. The following year it reorganized, and on June 16, 1948, a new Compagnie Nationale Air France was incorporated by act of parliament, with 70 percent of the new company being owned by the French government.

The first Air France transatlantic flight, from Paris to New York City, took place on June 25, 1946. Routes expanded in the following decades so that by the early 21st century the airline was serving more than 200 cities in some 80 countries.

Air France established its global hub at the new Roissy–Charles de Gaulle International Airport in 1974. On Jan. 21, 1976, it inaugurated supersonic Concorde flights, initially from Paris to Rio de Janeiro; in 1982 that route and others were cut owing to their unprofitability, leaving Paris–New York as the sole Concorde route. Further financial loss led Air France to cease its Concorde operations in 2003.

In 1992 Air France merged with the French airline Union des Transports Aériens (UTA) to form Air France Group, one of the world’s biggest air-transport groups. Its merger with Air Inter (now Air France Europe) in 1997 marked the group’s completion. Two years later, Air France was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange’s primary market (the market in which new securities are issued and sold). In 2000 the airline joined Delta Air Lines, Korean Air, and Aeroméxico to create SkyTeam, a global alliance that enabled the companies to share facilities and services.

In the late 20th century a movement began to privatize the airline. After the French government agreed to relinquish majority ownership in Air France, a privatization program was launched in 2002. In 2004 Air France acquired the Dutch airline KLM to create Air France–KLM Group, one of the largest air carriers in the world. The deal, however, allowed the two airlines to continue to operate as separate companies, retaining their own hubs, flights, and logos.