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74-566: Air France established Meridien Hotels in 1972. The chain's hotels offered accommodation for Air France flight crews in major hub cities, and the airline promoted the chain and handled reservations for it. The first Meridien Hotels property was a 1,000-room hotel in the heart of Paris, the Hotel Meridien Paris, today known as Le Méridien Etoile. The chain grew to 10 hotels in Europe and Africa within two years and had 21 hotels spanning

148-563: A GDS ) that would enable travel agencies to sell the founders and other airlines' products from a single system. In 1988, Air France was a launch customer for the fly-by-wire (FBW) A320 narrowbody twin, along with Air Inter and British Caledonian . It became the first airline to take delivery of the A320 in March 1988, and along with Air Inter became the first airlines to introduce Airbus A320 service on short-haul routes. On 12 January 1990,

222-446: A deal with German firm Intro Aviation by the end of Q1 of 2014. In 2014, the airline was targeted by a negative publicity campaign, spearheaded by PETA , for being the only major airline that permits the transport of primates for research. In 2022, the airline announced it would stop transporting nonhuman primates. On 4 February 2014, the new business product was unveiled, featuring a fully flat bed from Zodiac Aerospace. The seat

296-567: A hostile takeover battle for Forte in January 1996. Granada convinced majority shareholders to sell to them, rather than Rocco Forte , son of the company's founder, who feared Granada would strip the company of its assets. Granada assumed control of Forte for $ 5.9 billion. Soon after, in May 1996, Granada announced its intention to sell the 18 luxury hotels of the Forte Hotels chain, but to retain

370-682: A hotel in The Rialto. The new hotel is placed over the spot previously occupied by the Palace Theatre. The hotel cost $ 100 million to build. Shortly after, Le Méridien announced the opening of Le Méridien Melbourne, marking the return of the Le Méridien brand to Australia . [REDACTED] Media related to Le Méridien at Wikimedia Commons Air France Air France ( French pronunciation: [ɛːʁ fʁɑ̃s] ; legally Société Air France, S.A. ), stylised as AIRFRANCE ,

444-716: A lease to occupy the building in 1991. The site also formerly housed the New York City ticket office for Air France. Air France-KLM's head office for the United Kingdom and Ireland operations, which includes facilities for Air France and KLM , is located in Plesman House in Hatton Cross. The facility's inauguration was on 6 July 2006. Air France moved the office from Hounslow to Hatton. Air France Cité PN, located at Charles de Gaulle Airport, acts as

518-402: A limit of 1.4% maximum increase in capacity from 25 March 2012 to 28 October 2012. On 21 June 2012, Air France-KLM had announced its decision to cut just under 10% of the total 53,000 workforce (about 5,000 jobs) by the end of 2013 in an attempt to restore profitability. The airline expected to lose 1,700 jobs through natural turnover and the rest by voluntary redundancies. As of August 2012,

592-560: A major share of long-haul business traffic from London Heathrow , which opened to unrestricted competition on that day as a result of the " Open Skies " pact between the EU and US. It was envisaged that Air France and Delta would begin nine daily round trips between London-Heathrow and destinations in the US, including a daily London (Heathrow) to Los Angeles service by Air France. Once the new Air France-Delta venture received antitrust immunity , it

666-461: A mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing widebody jets on long-haul routes, and uses Airbus A320 family aircraft on short-haul routes. Air France introduced the Airbus A380 on 20 November 2009 with service from Paris to New York . Air France Hop (formerly HOP!) operates the majority of its regional domestic and European scheduled services with a fleet of regional jet aircraft. Air France

740-512: A multi-airline strategic partnership with Delta Air Lines , China Eastern Airlines and Virgin Atlantic , solidifying the existing ties between the carriers. Under the agreement Delta and China Eastern would each buy 10% of Air France-KLM, while Air France-KLM would buy 31% of Virgin Atlantic. In December 2019, the purchase of Virgin Atlantic was cancelled. Air France announced it would terminate services to Iran from September 2018, explaining

814-460: A seven-stop Lockheed Constellation (1049G model) via India. Air France's ten flights a day to London were almost all Vickers Viscounts ; the only other London flight was Alitalia 's daily Douglas DC-6B (BEA was at Le Bourget). A development project voted in 2012 planned to merge the airport's south and west terminals with the construction of an 80,000-square-metre (860,000 sq ft) building to create one great terminal. On 14 April 2016,

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888-461: A ticket and information agency in the former air terminal in Invalides, targeting transit passengers and customers from offices and companies in the Invalides area. Orly Airport Paris Orly Airport ( French : Aéroport de Paris-Orly ) ( IATA : ORY , ICAO : LFPO ) is one of two international airports serving Paris , France, the other one being Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It

962-556: A two-compartment cabin that could accommodate 14 to 16 passengers. A high-wing monoplane, it had a wooden fuselage with composite coating while the wings were fabric-covered with a metal leading edge. Equipped with Hispano-Suiza V-engines, they were used on routes in Europe, South America and the Far East. Although cruising at only 175 miles per hour, the Potez 62 was a robust and reliable workhorse for Air France and remained in service until

1036-616: Is at Charles de Gaulle Airport , with Orly Airport as the primary domestic hub. Air France's corporate headquarters , previously in Montparnasse , Paris, are located at the Roissypôle complex on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris. Air France was formed on 30 August 1933 as a merger of Air Orient , Air Union , Compagnie Générale Aéropostale , Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne (CIDNA), and Société Générale de Transport Aérien (SGTA) . During

1110-516: Is located on level 1 with more stores and restaurants located here. This central departures area is connected to three gate areas split between Orly 1 (A and B gates) and Orly 2 (C gates). 23 stands at this terminal are equipped with jet-bridges, with several of them also able to handle wide-body aircraft. Inaugurated in April 2019, Terminal 3 is a junction building between Terminals 1, 2 and 4. The terminal allows customers to travel between all areas of

1184-699: Is located partially in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi , 13 km (8.1 mi) south of Paris. It serves as a secondary hub for domestic and overseas territories flights of Air France and as the homebase for Transavia France . Flights operate to destinations in Europe , the Middle East , Africa , the Caribbean , South America and North America . Before the opening of CDG in 1974, Orly

1258-716: Is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France . It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. As of 2013, Air France served 29 destinations in France and operates worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to 201 destinations in 78 countries (93 including overseas departments and territories of France ) and also carried 46,803,000 passengers in 2019. The airline's global hub

1332-475: The 15th arrondissement of Paris . By 1991, two bids for the purchase of the Square Max Hymans building had been made. By 1992, the complex was sold to Mutuelle générale de l'Éducation nationale  [ fr ] (MGEN) for 1.6 billion francs . By that year, Air France had planned to move its head office to Roissypôle, taking 50,000 square metres (540,000 sq ft) of space inside

1406-585: The City 's financial services industry. However, the daily London (Heathrow) to Los Angeles service was not as successful as hoped, and was discontinued in November 2008. On 12 January 2012, Air France-KLM announced a three-year transformation plan, called Transform 2015, to restore profitability. The plan was to restore competitiveness through cost-cutting, restructuring the short- and medium-haul operations and rapidly reducing debt. The main objective of this plan

1480-695: The Cold War , from 1950 until 1990, it was one of the three main Allied scheduled airlines operating in Germany at West Berlin 's Tempelhof and Tegel airports. In 1990, it acquired the operations of French domestic carrier Air Inter and international rival UTA – Union de Transports Aériens . It served as France's primary national flag carrier for seven decades until its merger with KLM in 2003. In 2018, Air France and its regional subsidiary Hop carried 51.4 million passengers. Air France operates

1554-536: The European Union 's internal air transport market. On 25 July 1994, a new holding company, Groupe Air France, was set up by decree. Groupe Air France became operational on 1 September 1994. It acquired the Air France group's majority shareholdings in Air France and Air Inter (subsequently renamed Air Inter Europe). On 31 August 1994, Stephen Wolf , a former United Airlines CEO, was appointed adviser to

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1628-569: The French state 's direct and indirect shareholdings reached almost 100%. In mid-2002 the state held 54%. On 4 August 1948, Max Hymans was appointed the president. During his 13-year tenure he would implement modernisation practices centred on the introduction of jet aircraft . In 1949 the company became a co-founder of Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques (SITA) , an airline telecommunications services company. In 1952, Air France moved its operations and engineering base to

1702-566: The Groupe ADP rolled out the Connect 2020 corporate strategy and the commercial brand Paris Aéroport was applied to all Parisian airports, including the Orly airport. On 7 November 2015, the failure of a two-decade-old Windows 3.1 system which was responsible for communicating visual range information in foggy weather to pilots caused a temporary cease of operations. Whether the failure

1776-613: The Maghreb region, Eastern Europe (except the USSR ), Southern Europe (except Greece and Italy), and one daily service to New York (JFK) remained at Orly. In 1974, Air France also became the world's first operator of the Airbus A300 twin-engine widebody plane, Airbus Industrie 's first commercial airliner for which it was a launch customer. On 21 January 1976, Air France operated its inaugural supersonic transport (SST) service on

1850-649: The Second World War with one used by the Free French Air Force . On 26 June 1945, all of France's air transport companies were nationalised . On 29 December 1945, a decree of the French Government granted Air France the management of the entire French air transport network. Air France appointed its first flight attendants in 1946. The same year the airline opened its first air terminal at Les Invalides in central Paris. It

1924-484: The speed of sound . Approval for flights to the United States was initially withheld due to noise protests. Eventually, services to Mexico City via Washington, D.C., were started. Air France became one of only two airlines – British Airways being the other – to regularly operate supersonic services, and continued daily transatlantic Concorde service until late May 2003. By 1983, Air France's golden jubilee ,

1998-517: The 25% stake in Alitalia, as it was hesitant the struggling carrier would obtain the 300 million euros in financing. The group has denied Alitalia of additional funds as it is currently struggling to restructure itself to profitability with the Transform 2015 plan. In December 2013, Air France announced that Cityjet no longer meets the short haul needs of the group and is in the process of closing

2072-474: The 6,140-foot (1,870 m) 27/207 (degrees magnetic) runway (later 03R) with 5,170-foot (1,580 m) 81/261 runway (later 08L) crossing it at its north end. The November 1953 Aeradio diagram shows four concrete runways, all 197 feet (60 m) wide: 03L 7,874 ft (2,400 m), 03R 6,069 ft (1,850 m), 08L 5,118 ft (1,560 m) and 08R 6,627 ft (2,020 m). The American United States Army Air Forces 1408th Army Air Force Base Unit

2146-618: The 85 hotels in the Meridien Hotels chain. The 2000 merger of Forte and caterer Compass Group , and demerger within a year, passed the Forte Hotels division's three remaining brands (Le Méridien, Heritage Hotels and Posthouse Forte) to Compass. In May 2001, Nomura Group acquired Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts from Compass for £1.9 billion, and Le Méridien was merged with Principal Hotels , which had been acquired in February 2001. In December 2003, Lehman Brothers Holdings acquired

2220-440: The Air France group's chairman Christian Blanc . Wolf was credited with the introduction of Air France's hub and spoke operation at Paris Charles de Gaulle. Wolf resigned in 1996 to take over as CEO at US Airways . In 1997, Air Inter Europe was absorbed into Air France. On 19 February 1999, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin 's Plural Left government approved Air France's partial privatisation . Its shares were listed on

2294-653: The Germans. After the Battle of Normandy and the retreat of German forces from the Paris area in August 1944, Orly was partially repaired by USAAF combat engineers and was used by Ninth Air Force as tactical airfield A-47. The 50th Fighter Group flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber aircraft from the airport until September, then liaison squadrons used the airfield until October 1945. The USAAF diagram from March 1947 shows

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2368-498: The Paris stock exchange on 22 February 1999. In June 1999, Air France and Delta Air Lines formed a bilateral transatlantic partnership . On 22 June 2000, this expanded into the SkyTeam global airline alliance . On 30 September 2003, Air France and Netherlands -based KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced the merger of the two airlines, with the new company to be known as Air France–KLM. The merger took place on 5 May 2004. At that point former Air France shareholders owned 81% of

2442-415: The Paris (Charles de Gaulle) to Rio (via Dakar ) route with Anglo-French BAC-Aérospatiale Concorde F-BVFA. Supersonic services from Paris (CDG) to Washington Dulles International Airport began on 24 May 1976, also with F-BVFA. Service to New York (JFK) – the only remaining Concorde service until its end – commenced on 22 November 1977. Paris to New York was flown in 3 hours 23 minutes, at about twice

2516-468: The Transform 2015 plan was accepted by ground staff and pilot unions but rejected by cabin crew unions. At the beginning of July 2012, it was announced that Air France-KLM found partners for the new African start-up airline Air France, which was co-founded by six countries in Central Africa to replace the former Air Afrique . But several problems and two partners, who decided to back out, delayed

2590-518: The airline's crew base. The building, developed by Valode & Pistre , opened in February 2006. The first phase consisted of 33,400 square metres (360,000 sq ft) of space and 4,300 parking spaces. The building is connected to the Air France head office. Air France operates the Air France Vaccinations Center in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The centre distributes vaccines for international travel. Since 2001

2664-518: The airport are visible from the building. The Air France Operations Control Centre ( OCC , French: Centre de Contrôle des Opérations, CCO ), which coordinates Air France flights worldwide, is situated at the AF head office. For about 30 years prior to December 1995, Air France's headquarters were located in a tower adjacent to the Gare Montparnasse rail station in the Montparnasse area and

2738-539: The airport under one roof. It includes around 5,000 sqm of duty-free shopping along with several restaurants and lounges. It houses gates D and E, with direct access to Orly 4 departure gates. Formerly known as the South Terminal this innovative 1961 steel-and-glass terminal building consists of six floors. While the smaller basement level −1 as well as the upper levels 2, 3 and 4 contain only some service facilities, restaurants and office space, level 0 features

2812-419: The airport, however, is solely under the authority of Aéroports de Paris , which also manages Charles de Gaulle Airport , Le Bourget Airport , and several smaller airports in the suburbs of Paris. Originally known as Villeneuve-Orly Airport , the facility was opened in the southern suburbs of Paris in 1932 as a secondary airport to Le Bourget . Before this two huge airship hangars had been built there by

2886-719: The arrivals facilities as well as several shops and service counters. The airside area and departure gates are located on the upper level 1. The waiting area, which features several shops as well, houses gates E and F. 15 of the terminal's departure gates are equipped with jet-bridges, some of which are able to handle wide-body aircraft. The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Orly Airport: AOM French Airlines had its head office in Orly Airport Building 363 in Paray-Vieille-Poste . After AOM and Air Liberté merged in 2001,

2960-734: The centre was the only French vaccination centre certified International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001. In 2005, the centre moved from the Aérogare des Invalides to its current location. The Aérogare des Invalides in the 7th arrondissement of Paris houses the Agence Air France Invalides and the Air France Museum. Until 2005, the building hosted the Air France Vaccinations Centre. On 28 August 1959, Air France opened

3034-501: The concern that the route to Iran is no longer commercially viable due to the redefined US sanctions . In December 2018, Anne Rigail was appointed as Executive Director of the company. Air France's head office is located in the Roissypôle complex on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport and in the commune of Tremblay-en-France , Seine-Saint-Denis, near the city of Paris. Wil S. Hylton of The New York Times described

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3108-399: The creation of two private airlines: Transports Aériens Internationaux – later Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux – (TAI) and SATI. In 1949, the latter became part of Union Aéromaritime de Transport (UAT), a private French international airline. Compagnie Nationale Air France was created by act of parliament on 16 June 1948. Initially, the government held 70%. In subsequent years

3182-557: The engineer Eugène Freyssinet from 1923 on. As a result of the Battle of France in 1940, Orly Airport was used by the occupying German Luftwaffe as a combat airfield, stationing various fighter and bomber units at the airport throughout the occupation. Consequently, Orly was repeatedly attacked by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), destroying much of its infrastructure, and leaving its runways with numerous bomb craters to limit its usefulness to

3256-528: The facility as "a huge white box that squats near the runways at Charles de Gaulle Airport." The 130,000-square-metre (1,400,000 sq ft) complex was completed in December 1995. The French firm Groupement d'Etudes et de Méthodes d'Ordonnancement (GEMO) managed the project. The architect was Valode & Pistre and the design consultants were Sechaud-Boyssut and Trouvin. The project cost 137,000,000 euros (less than 700 million francs ). The runways of

3330-595: The first European airline to do so. In 1986, the government relaxed its policy of dividing traffic rights for scheduled services between Air France, Air Inter and UTA, without route overlaps between them. The decision opened some of Air France's most lucrative routes on which it had enjoyed a government-sanctioned monopoly since 1963 and which were within its exclusive sphere of influence, to rival airlines, notably UTA. The changes enabled UTA to launch scheduled services to new destinations within Air France's sphere, in competition with that airline. Paris-San Francisco became

3404-598: The first route UTA served in competition with Air France non-stop from Paris. Air France responded by extending some non-stop Paris-Los Angeles services to Papeete , Tahiti, which competed with UTA on Los Angeles-Papeete. UTA's ability to secure traffic rights outside its traditional sphere in competition with Air France was the result of a campaign to lobby the government to enable it to grow faster, becoming more dynamic and more profitable . This infuriated Air France. In 1987, Air France together with Lufthansa , Iberia and SAS founded Amadeus , an IT company (also known as

3478-563: The globe within six years. In 1994, as part of a cost-cutting measure, Air France sold its controlling interest in Meridien Hotels Inc., a 57.3% stake, to the UK-based Forte Group for $ 207 million. Meridien Hotels numbered 58 properties at the time. The sale followed an 18-month battle for control of the company between Forte, German-based Kempinski and French hospitality company Accor . The French government

3552-771: The government formalised division of routes between Air France and its private sector rivals. Air France was to withdraw services to West Africa (except Senegal ), Central Africa (except Burundi and Rwanda ), Southern Africa (including South Africa ), Libya in North Africa, Bahrain and Oman in the Middle East, Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon ) in South Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand as well as New Caledonia and Tahiti . These routes were allocated to

3626-410: The group employed 71,654 people. As of March 2007, the group employed 102,422 personnel. On 17 October 2007, the creation of a profit and revenue-sharing transatlantic joint venture between Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines was announced during a press conference at Air France-KLM's headquarters. The venture became effective on 29 March 2008. It aimed to exploit transatlantic opportunities to capture

3700-511: The hotel, office, and shopping complex on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport. After Air France moved to Tremblay-en-France, the ownership of the former head office complex was transferred. On a previous occasion the head office was at 2 rue marbeuf in the 8th arrondissement of Paris . Air France's United States offices are in the 125 West 55th Street building in Midtown Manhattan , New York City. Air France first signed

3774-400: The implementation of the project. Following its launch, Air France announced it would commence operations in 2013. In September 2013, Air France introduced a brand new Economy product along with an improved Premium Economy seat and service. It is expected that the new improvements would be fitted on aircraft from June 2014 onwards. In October 2013, Air France-KLM announced it was writing off

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3848-686: The largest airline in the world in terms of operating revenues , and third-largest (largest in Europe) in passenger kilometres. Although owned by a single company, Air France and KLM continued to fly under their own brand names . Air France–KLM remained part of SkyTeam alliance, which then included Aeroflot , Delta Air Lines , Aeroméxico , Korean Air , Czech Airlines , Alitalia , Northwest Airlines , China Southern Airlines , China Eastern Airlines , China Airlines , Air Europa , Continental Airlines , Garuda Indonesia , Vietnam Airlines , Saudia , Aerolineas Argentinas , and XiamenAir . As of March 2004,

3922-613: The new Orly Airport South terminal. By then the network covered 250,000 km. Air France entered the jet age in August 1953, flying the original, short-lived de Havilland Comet series 1A Paris-Rome-Beirut. In the mid 1950s, it also operated the Vickers Viscount turboprop, with twelve entering service between May 1953 and August 1954 on the European routes. On 26 September 1953 the government instructed Air France to share long-distance routes with new private airlines. This

3996-560: The new Union de Transports Aériens (UTA), a new private airline resulting from the merger of TAI and UAT. UTA also got exclusive rights between Japan, New Caledonia and New Zealand , South Africa and Réunion island in the Indian Ocean, as well as Los Angeles and Tahiti. In 1974, Air France began shifting the bulk of operations to the new Charles de Gaulle Airport north of Paris. By the early 1980s, only Corsica , Martinique, Guadeloupe , most services to French Guiana , Réunion,

4070-472: The new airline, Air Lib, occupied building 363. Orly Airport is directly served by one metro line, a tram line and a people mover, which offer connections to the larger Paris transportation network: As part of the Grand Paris Express project, Aéroport d'Orly station on the metro opened on 24 June 2024. It is by a new extension of Line 14 , linking the airport directly to Paris. From 2027,

4144-693: The new firm (44% owned by the French state, 37% by private shareholders), former KLM shareholders the rest. The decision of the Jean-Pierre Raffarin government to reduce the French state's shareholding in the former Air France group from 54.4% to 44% of the newly created Air France–KLM Group effectively privatised the new airline. In December 2004, the state sold 18.4% of its equity in Air France–KLM. The state's shareholding in Air France–KLM subsequently fell to just under 20%. Air France–KLM became

4218-403: The operations of government-owned Air France, semi-public Air Inter and wholly private Union de Transports Aériens (UTA) were merged into an enlarged Air France. Air France's acquisition of UTA and Air Inter was part of an early 1990s government plan to create a unified, national air carrier with the economies of scale and global reach to counter potential threats from the liberalization of

4292-403: The retirement of its last Boeing 747-400 with a special scenic flight on 14 January 2016. The airline operated the 747 in several variants since 1970. In January 2017, Air France received its first Boeing 787–9. In November, CityJet no longer operated on Air France flights and the affected destinations were served by Air France and HOP! from then on. In July 2017, Air France-KLM entered into

4366-414: The route in just under 20 hours. In September 1947, Air France's network stretched east from New York, Fort de France and Buenos Aires to Shanghai. By 1948, Air France operated 130 aircraft, one of the largest fleets in the world. Between 1947 and 1965, the airline operated Lockheed Constellations on passenger and cargo services worldwide. In 1946 and 1948, respectively, the French government authorised

4440-574: The senior debt of Le Méridien. US-based Starwood acquired Le Méridien on November 24, 2005. A Lehman Brothers and Starwood Capital Group joint venture obtained the leased and owned real estate assets in a separate deal. Over the following five years, 45 of these 130 properties were sold, and 20 new ones were added to the chain. In September 2016, Marriott gained the Le Méridien brand as part of its acquisition of Starwood . On 16 March 2023, Le Meridien re-opened in Melbourne after previously operating

4514-602: The station will also be served by Line 18 , connecting the airport to Massy-Palaiseau and Paris-Saclay . Orly Airport is connected to the A106 autoroute ( spur of the A6 autoroute ). Paris Aéroport reported in 2023 that a tree-planting project in the vicinity of the airport, along the route of the route nationale 7 , was being undertaken. The scheme involved planting 900 tree species and 14,000 forest seedlings. Paris Aéroport anticipates capturing 329 tonnes of carbon per year through

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4588-563: The workforce numbered more than 34,000, its fleet about 100 jet aircraft (including 33 Boeing 747s ) and its 634,400 km network served 150 destinations in 73 countries. This made Air France the fourth-largest scheduled passenger airline in the world, as well as the second-largest scheduled freight carrier. Air France also codeshared with regional French airlines, TAT being the most prominent. TAT would later operate several regional international routes on behalf of Air France. In 1983, Air France began passenger flights to South Korea , being

4662-538: Was announced that Air France will largely cease using Orly Airport by summer 2026, with only one public service obligation flight to Corsica to remain. Known as the West Terminal until March 2019, these two terminals consist of two floors and a gate area of four "fingers" rather than a brick-style layout. The ground level 0 features the arrivals facilities including eight baggage reclaim belts as well as several service facilities and shops. The departures area

4736-436: Was fitted on Boeing 777 aircraft from June 2014 onwards. In September 2014, Air France announced it would sell a 3 per cent stake in travel technology company Amadeus IT Group for $ 438 million. Late in 2015, Air France faced a financial crisis, which was exacerbated by a pilot's strike against the airline. The airline answered the strike by announcing it would cut some 2,900 jobs. In December 2015, Air France announced

4810-530: Was followed by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport's imposition of an accord on Air France, Aigle Azur , TAI and UAT , under which some routes to Africa, Asia and the Pacific region were transferred to private carriers. On 23 February 1960, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport transferred Air France's domestic monopoly to Air Inter. To compensate for the loss of its domestic network Air France

4884-676: Was formed on 30 August 1933, from a merger of Air Orient , Air Union , Compagnie Générale Aéropostale , Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne (CIDNA) and Société Générale des Transports Aériens (SGTA). Of these airlines, SGTA was the first commercial airline company in France, having been founded as Lignes Aériennes Farman in 1919. The constituent members of Air France had already built extensive networks across Europe, to French colonies in North Africa and farther afield. During World War II, Air France moved its operations to Casablanca (Morocco). In 1936, Air France added French-built twin engine Potez 62 aircraft to its fleet featuring

4958-638: Was given a stake in Air Inter. The following day Air France was instructed to share African routes with Air Afrique and UAT . The airline started uninterrupted jet operations in 1960 with the Sud Aviation Caravelle and the Boeing 707 ; jet airliners cut travel times in half and improved comfort. Air France later became an early Boeing 747 operator and eventually had one of the world's largest Boeing 747 fleets. On 1 February 1963,

5032-547: Was hardware- or software-based is not specified, though the highlighting of the operating system suggests a software failure. As part of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on aviation , the airport was closed to all commercial traffic from 1 April 2020 to 25 June 2020. During this period, commercial traffic and flights were relocated to Charles de Gaulle Airport , while Orly was still used for State flights, emergency diversions, and medical evacuations. In October 2023, it

5106-513: Was linked to Paris Le Bourget Airport , Air France's first operations and engineering base, by coach. At that time the network covered 160,000 km, claimed to be the longest in the world. Société Nationale Air France was set up on 1 January 1946. European schedules were initially operated by a fleet of Douglas DC-3 aircraft. On 1 July 1946, Air France started direct flights between Paris and New York via refuelling stops at Shannon and Gander . Douglas DC-4 piston -engine airliners covered

5180-558: Was reported to have favored Accor's bid, wishing to keep the company French-owned, while the European Commission was reported to have favored Forte over Accor and to have pressured Air France to sell to Forte, in exchange for a vital 20 billion Franc bailout for the airline. Forte simultaneously announced their intention to buy the remaining minority stakes in the hotel chain from Crédit Foncier de France , Crédit Lyonnais and other shareholders. UK conglomerate Granada won

5254-518: Was the main airport of Paris. Even with the shift of most international traffic to CDG, Orly remains the busiest French airport for domestic traffic and the second busiest French airport overall in passenger traffic, with 33,120,685 passengers in 2018. The airport is operated by Groupe ADP under the brand Paris Aéroport . Orly Airport covers 15.3 km (5.9 sq mi) of land. The airport area, including terminals and runways, spans over two départements and seven communes : Management of

5328-791: Was the primary operator at Orly Field until March 1947 when control was returned to the French Government. (The United States Air Force leased a small portion of the Airport to support Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) at Rocquencourt ). The Americans left in 1967 as a result of France's withdrawal from NATO's integrated military command, and all non-French NATO forces were asked to leave France. In May 1958, Pan Am Douglas DC-7Cs flew to Los Angeles in 21 hr 56 min; Trans World Airlines , Air France and Pan Am flew nonstop to New York in 14 hrs 10–15 min. Air France flew to Tokyo in 31 hr 5 min via Anchorage or 44 hr 45 min on

5402-533: Was to be extended to the other two transatlantic SkyTeam partners, enabling all four partners to codeshare flights as well as to share revenue and profit. The new transatlantic joint venture marks the Air France-KLM Group's second major expansion in the London market, following the launch of CityJet -operated short-haul services from London City Airport that have been aimed at business travellers in

5476-409: Was to turn Air France-KLM back into a world player by 2015. Air France had been losing 700 million euros a year. As the financial results of 2011 demonstrated, the long-haul operations, also subject to increasing competition, would not be able to offset these losses. On 22 February 2012, Air France released its plan for the summer schedule. Because of the uncertain economic environment, Air France-KLM set

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