2023-10-08 04:20:36
Aurélien Fleurot, edited by Loane Nader // photo credit: Thomas SAMSON / AFP 6:20 a.m., October 8, 2023
This Saturday, Air France celebrated its 90th anniversary. The emblematic French airline has experienced good times, but also considerable turbulence. In great difficulty during the Covid pandemic, it now seems in great shape and has just announced the largest contract in the history of the Air France-KLM group.
On October 7, 1933, the emblematic Air France company was born at Le Bourget. Already, the emblem was there: the winged seahorse, symbol of power and speed. Between Air Inter, the competition and Concorde, Air France has weathered the turbulence of the airline sector.
But the company came close to bankruptcy in the early 1990s, as Arnaud Aymé, an airline specialist at Sia Partners, recalls. “The situation in the airline sector in general, and Air France in particular, was really difficult following the Gulf War. Traffic had declined and in 1994, the company was very close to filing for bankruptcy and had to be recapitalized. by the French State”, explains the expert.
50 new Airbus A350s
Then obviously comes the rebound and the time of strategic partnerships with Accor and Delta Airlines and in 2004, the merger with KLM. The synergies took many years to be found, but the Air France-KLM group is now solid and is largely renewing its fleet. The latter now counts among its ranks 50 Airbus A350s, which have just been ordered. The loans guaranteed by the State are repaid, which makes it possible to invest and strengthen with now 20% of the Scandinavian company in SAS.
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