France

Europe

24Airlines

7Profiled Airports

23With ICAO

20With Callsign

Aviation History

France was a cradle of early aviation, from Louis Blériot's 1909 crossing of the English Channel to the founding of pioneering airlines and the world's first scheduled international air services. Air France emerged in 1933 from the merger of five smaller carriers and was nationalized after WWII, becoming the state flag carrier for decades. France later became a centre of aerospace technology, co-developing the supersonic Concorde with the United Kingdom and hosting the founding of the Airbus consortium in Toulouse in 1970. Air France merged with KLM in 2004 to form one of Europe's largest airline groups, and France remains a major hub of European and global aviation manufacturing and traffic today.

✦The Paris Air Show, first held in 1909, is the world's oldest and largest aerospace trade show.

✦Toulouse, home to Airbus, is one of Europe's largest aerospace industry hubs.

✦Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, opened in 1974, is named after the wartime leader and former French president.

1909

Blériot's first flight across the English Channel

Louis Blériot flew his monoplane from Calais to Dover, the first heavier-than-air crossing of the Channel and a landmark early aviation achievement.

1919

Paris-London scheduled international air service begins

French carriers began some of the world's earliest scheduled international passenger flights between Paris and London shortly after WWI.

1933

Air France founded from merger of five airlines

Air France was created on 30 August 1933 by merging five existing French carriers, including Aéropostale and Air Union, into a single national airline.

1945

French airlines nationalized after WWII

France nationalized its air transport companies in 1945-46, with Air France becoming the state-owned flag carrier as Société Nationale Air France.

1969

Concorde prototype makes first flight

The Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner prototype, developed with British Aerospace, flew for the first time from Toulouse.

1970

Airbus consortium founded in Toulouse

Airbus was established as a European aerospace consortium headquartered in Toulouse, which grew into one of the world's two dominant commercial aircraft manufacturers.

1976

Concorde begins supersonic commercial service

Air France launched commercial Concorde service in January 1976, later adding transatlantic routes to New York in 1977.

2000

Concorde crash leads to worldwide grounding

The July 2000 crash of Air France Flight 4590 near Paris led to a temporary grounding of the Concorde fleet and hastened the type's 2003 retirement.

2004

Air France and KLM merge

Air France merged with Dutch carrier KLM in 2004, forming the Air France-KLM Group, one of the world's largest airline holding companies.

Notable Carriers

Air France · Air France-KLM · Aéropostale (historical) · Corsair International · Transavia France · French Bee

General aviation history sources (Wikipedia, Air France corporate history, Britannica); airline group ownership and route details can change and should be verified against current airline reporting.

Aviation Firsts

Oldest Airport — contested

Port-Aviation — Viry-Châtillon (1909): Opened 23 May 1909; claimed as the world's first organized aerodrome. Closed 1918, now a housing development. · Wikipedia ↗

Paris–Le Bourget Airport — Le Bourget (1919): Opened 1919, started commercial operations 1919; today handles only general/business aviation, not scheduled commercial flights. · Wikipedia ↗

Port-Aviation (1909) is the earliest organized aerodrome but closed in 1918; Le Bourget (1919) is one of the oldest named airports but no longer handles scheduled commercial flights today.

Oldest Airline — contested

Compagnie Générale Transaérienne (CGT) (1909): Flew the world's first scheduled fixed-wing passenger flights within France in 1913. Absorbed 1921 into Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes, which with Grands Express Aériens formed Air Union (1923) — one of five companies merged 30 August 1933 to form Air France. · AF ↗ · Wikipedia ↗

Société des Lignes Latécoère / Compagnie Générale Aéropostale (1918): Some sources trace Air France's earliest lineage to this 1918 airmail pioneer (famous for South Atlantic routes) instead of CGT's 1909 founding — Wikipedia does not resolve which is correct. · Wikipedia ↗

Air France's own Wikipedia article doesn't resolve whether its lineage starts with CGT (1909) or Aéropostale's predecessor (1918); a third company (Société Générale des Transports Aériens, 1919) separately gets credit for France's first scheduled passenger service.

First Foreign Ground Handler

AMR Services Corporation (later Worldwide Flight Services / WFS) (United States), 1993: WFS's own company history states that in 1993 "AMR Services acquired French-based SFS, creating a European and North American cargo and ground handling business", which was renamed Worldwide Flight Services in 1999. This predates Swissport's separately documented late-1990s French expansion. The source does not explicitly frame this as France's first foreign entrant, so confidence is tentative. (best-documented candidate found — not source-confirmed as literally first.) · WFS (Worldwide Flight Services) ↗