AOM French Airlines

AOM French Airlines
Airbus A340-200
IATA ICAO Call sign
IW AOM FRENCH LINES
Founded1 January 1992 (1992-01-01)
Commenced operations1 January 1992 (1992-01-01)
Ceased operations25 March 2001 (2001-03-25) (merged into Air Liberté)
HubsOrly Airport
Frequent-flyer programQualiflyer
HeadquartersParay-Vieille-Poste, France
Key peopleMarc Rochet
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30
McDonnell Douglas MD-83
McDonnell Douglas MD-83 in the special colours designed by Alizée singer
Boeing 737-500

AOM French Airlines was the second-largest airline in France that operated from 1991 until 2001. Its head office was in Building 363 at Orly Airport, Paray-Vieille-Poste.[1]

History

Foundation through merger

Air Outre Mer S.A., or AOM for short, was founded in July 1987 in the French overseas département of Réunion island and began services on 28 May 1990, locally with a Dornier 228 and a overseas with a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30.[2][3][4] In October 1991, Air Outre Mer agreed to merge with Minerve, a French airline which was based at Orly Airport and had operated since 1975. Minerve had been the first airline to compete directly with Air Inter on the French domestic airline market by opening a Paris (Orly) - Nice route in May 1991. However, Minerve's history had been marked by clashes and restrictions imposed by the State to protect "its company Air France" (refused aircraft changes, refusal to take off in France and therefore obligation to transfer the passengers by train to Brussels, etc.).

The two companies began operating under the name AOM French Airlines, although the administrative name was "AOM-Minerve S.A.", on 1 January 1992. Throughout its existence, AOM suffered from a lack of resources, as it was owned by the CDR-Consortium de Réalisation, a financial entity tasked with selling off the former "rotten" assets of Crédit Lyonnais bank. The CDR, whose sole mission was to sell the company, made no investments in it. AOM thus remained a struggling airline, primarily due to fierce competition. Under pressure from Air France and Aéroports de Paris, it was forced to relocate the flights from Orly-Ouest (a terminal recently renovated for Air France) to the more outdated Orly-Sud terminal. AOM resisted in vain by all means (including painting "I want to stay at Orly West!" on some aircraft) for the simple reason that domestic traffic departed from Orly-Ouest, not Orly-Sud. This would have been tantamount to condemning the airline. For most of the decade, the airline fiercely competed with Air France on both the French domestic market and on the routes to the French overseas territories.

In February 1999, Swissair acquired a 49% stake in the airline as a part of its "hunter strategy".[5] So, in 2000, it joined Swissair Group and consequentially the struggling Qualifier Group alliance. The management of Alexandre Couvelaire, head of Euralair (and friend of French president Jacques Chirac), did not prevent the company from continuing its irresistible decline.

Another merger

Due to inappropriate fleet management and overcapacity, the airline quickly accumulated huge debts and consequently ceased operations (possibly as a result of the bursting of the dot-com bubble and the early 2000s recession which followed). In late March 2001, at the initiative of Swissair Group, AOM merged the operations with Air Liberté and Air Littoral, equally ill-fated acquisitions by the declining Swiss group. In April the new company adopted the name AOM/Air Liberté[6] However, it survived only thanks to funding from Swissair, and in May a restructuring plan involving the elimination of a third of jobs was announced. Indeed, Swissair Group, was facing financial difficulties as well. On 15 June, the company filed for bankruptcy and was placed under court supervision for three months[7]. At the end of this period, two potential buyers came forward: Marc Rochet and Jean-Charles Corbet, an employee of the national airline. Following a standoff between management and unions, and under pressure from the then Minister of Transport, the airline was taken over in July (two months before the September 11 attacks) for a symbolic 1 €uro by Jean-Charles Corbet, an Air France pilot. In this deal, Swissair committed to paying 1.3 billion French francs starting in August to finance a restructuring that would result in the elimination of 1,405 jobs. On 22 September the airline was renamed Air Lib.[8]

Destinations

AOM French Airlines served the following destinations:

France

French overseas departments and territories

International routes

 Australia
 Bahamas
 Cuba
 Dominican Republic
 Ecuador
 Japan
 Libya
 Maldives
 Sri Lanka
 Switzerland
 Thailand
United States
 Vietnam

Fleet

AOM French Airlines has operated the following aircraft throughout its existence:

AOM French Airlines fleet
Aircraft Total Introduced Retired Notes
Airbus A300B4 1 1999 2000 Leased from TransAer International Airlines.
Airbus A340-200 3 1999 2001
Airbus A340-300 2 2000 2001
Boeing 737-200 1 1996 1996 Leased from Air Toulouse.
Boeing 737-500 3 1998 2000 Leased from LOT Polish Airlines.
Boeing 747-200B 1 1992 1993
Douglas DC-8-62CF 1 1992 1992
Douglas DC-8-73 1 1992 1992 Leased to Air Sweden.
Fokker 100 1 1996 1996 Leased from Transwede Airways.
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 15 1990 2001 One crashed as Cubana Flight 1216.
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 1 1994 1994 Leased from Meridiana.
McDonnell Douglas MD-83 14 1992 2001
McDonnell Douglas MD-87 1 1995 1996 Leased from Transwede Airways.

References

  1. ^ "World Airline Directory 1999." Flight International. 2000. 363.; "Nos coordonnées agences en "France Métropolitaine "." AOM French Airlines. Retrieved on 15 May 2010. "SIEGE Bâtiment 363 B.P. 854 94 551 ORLY AEROGARE CEDEX"; "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."
  2. ^ Gunston, Bill; Pyle, Mark S.; Peter Bently; Mark S. Pyle; Edouard Chemel (1992). Chronicle of aviation. Internet Archive. Liberty, Mo. : JL International Publishing. p. 919. ISBN 978-1-872031-30-9. AOM - Founded in July 1987 - History: Air Outre Mer is a French scheduled passenger carrier, at present in the process of merging with Minerve into a joint airline, to be known as Air Must. AOM started scheduled services in May 1990
  3. ^ Wragg, David W. (1998). The World's Major Airlines and Their Aircraft (1st ed.). Patrick Stephens Limited. pp. 72–73. ISBN 978-1-85260-587-2. Although AOM dates from January 1992, it was formed from the merger of two older airlines, Air Outre Mer and Minerve. Air Outre Mer had been formed almost five years earlier and had been operating scheduled services with three McDonnell Douglas DC-10s between Paris and Reunion in the Indian Ocean.
  4. ^ "Une compagnie héritière de plusieurs fusions | Les Echos". lesechos.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 2026-02-11. Retrieved 2026-02-11.
  5. ^ Farschtschian, Farsam (2011-11-24). The Reality of M&A Governance: Transforming Board Practice for Success. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 124. ISBN 978-3-642-22778-3. Swissair purchased a share of 49% in Air Outre-Mer French Airlines in February 1999.
  6. ^ "Home." AOM French Airlines. 6 May 2001. Retrieved on 15 May 2010. "Le 25 Mars 2001 AOM change de nom et devient Air Liberté."
  7. ^ swissinfo.ch, S. W. I. (2001-06-15). "Air Liberté-AOM files for bankruptcy". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2026-02-10.
  8. ^ "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."
  9. ^ a b c Flight Global News, 20 September 1995 [1]

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