Air Liberté

Air Liberté
IATA
IJ		 ICAO
LIB		 Callsign
-
Founded July 1987
Ceased operations 22 September 2001
Fleet size 53 (total during operations)
Destinations
Parent company British Airways (70%)
Headquarters Air Liberté: Rungis, France
Air Lib: Building 363
Orly Airport
Paray-Vieille-Poste
Key people Eric Schulz (CEO)
Website airliberte.fr

Air Liberté (later known as Air Lib) was an airline in France founded in July 1987. Air Liberté was headquartered in Rungis.[1] Airlib was headquartered in Orly Airport Building 363 in Paray-Vieille-Poste.[2][3]

Air Liberté began operations in April 1988 with a leased MD-83. It mainly operated to destinations in European and Mediterranean holiday resorts, however it had some interncontinental routes. A route to Montreal was inaugurated in 1993, and Réunion and the Caribbean were also served by the airline. Unsuccessful routes included one from Toulouse to Dakar and London, which were scrapped in a conflict over slot allocations at Orly. 1996 saw a new route to Nice, and in May the route network of Euralair was taken on. Around 1996, the airline had a fleet of 5 Boeing 737-200 airplanes, 8 McDonnell Douglas MD-83 planes and 5 McDonnell Douglas DC-10 planes.

1996 also brought with it financial distress. The airline lost 1 billion FF ($181 million) that year, and in 1997 British Airways acquired 70% of the shareholding. At this time, British Airways brought Air Liberté together with TAT and inaugurated them under one management. Nouvelair was born out of Air Liberté's subsidiary in Tunisia, Air Liberté Tunisie.

On 25 March 2001 AOM French Airlines changed its name to "Air Liberté."[4] On 22 September 2001 Air Liberté and AOM French Airlines merged into Airlib.[5]

Fleet

Air Liberté operated the following aircraft during operations:[6]

Image Aircraft Total
Airbus A300B4-622R 2
Airbus A310-221 2
Airbus A310-324 1
ATR 42-300 7
ATR 72-202 3
Boeing 737-200 3
Fokker 100 12
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 5
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 5
McDonnell Douglas MD-83 13
Total 53

References

  1. ^ World Airline Directory. Flight International. 26 March-1 April 1997. "44.
  2. ^ "World Airline Directory." Flight International. 12–18 March 2002. 57.
  3. ^ "Résultat de votre recherche." Le Journal officiel électronique authentifié. Retrieved on 15 May 2010. "Siège social : compagnie Air Lib, bâtiment 363, zone centrale à l’aéroport d’Orly, 91550 Paray-Vieille-Poste."
  4. ^ "Home." AOM French Airlines. 6 May 2001. Retrieved on 15 May 2010. "Le 25 Mars 2001 AOM change de nom et devient Air Liberté."
  5. ^ "Découvrir Air Liberté." Air Liberté. 23 February 2002. Retrieved on 15 May 2010. "Le 22 Septembre 2001, AOM et AIR LIBERTE ont donné naissance à une nouvelle compagnie aérienne qui porte désormais le nom AIR LIB."
  6. ^ Air Liberté past fleet

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