Aigle Azur was a French

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

based and headquartered at Paris Orly Airport. The airline operated scheduled flights from France to 21 destinations across

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, and the

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, with a fleet of Airbus A320 family and A330 aircraft. The airline filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

and was placed in

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especia ...

on 2 September 2019. Takeover bids were received, but none proved viable and the airline was liquidated by the court on 27 September 2019.

History

1946–1955

Aigle Azur was founded in 1946 by Sylvain Floirat, becoming the first post-war private company and began operating a few Junkers Ju 52s with an increased capacity of 32 passengers. Its founder also managed to secure special transport contracts with the authorities, such as contracts for overseas teachers during the school holidays, with its first destinations to Tunisia and Lebanon. Purchasing more modern equipment from American surplus allowed the company to extend its activities into

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

and Algeria, where an important market was the

repatriation Repatriation is the return of a thing or person to its or their country of origin, respectively. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as the return of mi ...

of people back to France. On 1 May 1955, Sylvain Floirat transferred the entire fleet to the Union Aéromaritime de Transport (UAT), along with 54 of the company's crew members and its hotel staff.

1970–2000

In 1970, the company was re-established as a regional airline under the name Lucas Aviation. Its registered office was at Pontoise airport. Lucas Aviation initially operated regional scheduled flights traded as Lucas Air Transport, including a year-round connecting service between

Deauville Deauville () is a communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados department, Normandy (administrative region), Normandy, northwestern France. Major attractions include its port, harbour, Race track, race course, marinas, con ...

and London Gatwick. The company name was later changed once again to Lucas Aigle Azur. In addition to this regular route, Aigle Azur provided business flights for politicians, businessmen, sporting figures and artists.

Since 2001

In 2001, Aigle Azur was in decline, with only two Boeing 737-200 aircraft. It was taken over by the GoFast group (a firm with specialties in freight, logistics, industrial projects and tourism), which invested capital into the company and updated its fleet, while primarily focusing on charter flights to Algeria. When Air Lib ceased trading, Aigle Azur opened regular routes to Algeria. It also benefited from the closing of Khalifa Airways, which had served Algeria from France along with Air Algeria. In 2006, with open sky agreements in place in Morocco and Tunisia, the company was operating numerous regular flights to Morocco's main cities, notably

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech (; , ) is the fourth-largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakesh–Safi Regions of Morocco, region. The city lies west of the foothills of the Atlas Mounta ...

Agadir Agadir (, ; ) is a major List of cities in Morocco, city in Morocco, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean near the foot of the Atlas Mountains, just north of the point where the Sous River, Souss River flows into the ocean, and south of Casabla ...

, Fes,

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

and

Oujda Oujda (, ) is a major city in northeast Morocco near the Algeria–Morocco border, border with Algeria. Oujda is the capital city of the Oriental (Morocco), Oriental region of northeastern Morocco and has a population of 506,224 people (2024 censu ...

. In 2007, Aigle Azur was offering 30 regular destinations from several French cities, and launched regular flights from Paris Orly to Djerba, Paris Orly to

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and

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

Sal, Cape Verde Sal (Portuguese for "salt") is an island in Cape Verde. Sal is a tourist destination with white sandy beaches and over 350 days of sunshine a year. It is one of the three sandy eastern islands of the Cape Verde archipelago in the central Atlantic ...

. It also rolled out electronic tickets. At the beginning of 2008, the company was able to add new destinations, with regular flights to Faro, in the south of Portugal and

Bamako Bamako is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2022 population of 4,227,569. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country. Bamak ...

in Mali. At the end of April 2008, it received its third

Airbus A319 The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The A319 carries 124 to 156 passengers and has a maximum range of . Final ass ...

, registered as F-HBMI, increasing the size of its fleet to 11 aircraft. In June 2008, its

loyalty Loyalty is a Fixation (psychology), devotion to a country, philosophy, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only another human being can be the obj ...

programme, Azur Plus, was launched. In May 2009, the company received its first new

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

², and its presence at the

Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (, ''Salon du Bourget'') is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in France. Organized by the French aerospace industry's primary representative body, the ''Groupement des industries frança ...

enabled it to order a fourth

from

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

a month later. This aircraft was delivered in April 2010. A fifth Airbus A319 was received in May 2010. In June 2010, the company announced its plan to open a route between Paris and

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, starting from September 2010. In July 2010, Aigle Azur began a partnership with the Malian company Air Mali. This meant that Aigle Azur was able to begin selling flights to other African cities, particularly to

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N'ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the largest city and the former capital of Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of the overall population ...

and

Brazzaville Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...

. The agreement came into effect as from 1 August 2010. On 30 October 2010, the company's inaugural flight to Baghdad took place. The airline opened reservations for Baghdad, with the first commercial flights beginning in mid-December 2010. This route was discontinued in mid-2011 due to a lack of reservations resulting from events in the country. On 23 November 2011, Aigle Azur opened a new regular route to Mali. In July 2012, Aigle Azur opened a route between Paris Orly and Moscow Vnukovo. To accelerate its growth strategy and expand its network into the long-haul sector, on 23 October 2012 Aigle Azur announced that the Chinese conglomerate

HNA Group HNA Group Co., Ltd., was a Chinese conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Haikou, Hainan, China. Founded in 2000, it was involved in numerous industries including aviation, real estate, financial services, tourism, logistics, and ...

had bought shares, leaving HNA Group (notably the owner of

Hainan Airlines Hainan Airlines is an airline headquartered in Haikou, Hainan, China. It is the largest civilian-run enterprise, civilian-run and majority State ownership, state-owned air transport company, making it the fourth-largest airline in terms of flee ...

, Hong Kong Airlines, China West Airlines, Lucky Air, Tianjin Airlines, and Hong Kong Express) as the owner of 48% of Aigle Azur's capital. Thus the company was owned by Weaving Group, Lu Azur and the HNA Group. On 18 December 2012, Aigle Azur and Corsair International signed a commercial partnership agreement to harmonise their respective networks in order to enhance their passenger connections at Paris Orly. Aigle Azur and Corsair were then both able to make the most of their geographic deployments by cross-selling tickets each to their own customers, and in doing so generating additional revenues⁵. By 2014, Aigle Azur was the second-largest French airline after

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

, and ahead of Air Austral and Corsair International, and employed 1,400 people⁶. The company was mainly competing with Air France,

Air Algérie Air Algérie SpA (, ) is the flag carrier of Algeria, with its head office in the El-Djazair office block in Algiers. With flights operating mostly from Houari Boumedienne Airport in Algiers and Ahmed Ben Bella Airport in Oran, Air Algérie op ...

EasyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airlin ...

and

TAP Air Portugal TAP Air Portugal is the flag carrier of Portugal, headquartered at Lisbon Airport which also serves as its airline hub, hub. TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – has been a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and operates on average 2, ...

. In 2015, it opened connecting flights between Marseille and Dakar, then Lyon and Dakar, followed by a route to

Conakry Conakry ( , ; ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its population as of the 2014 Guinea census was 1,660,973. The current population of C ...

in 2016. In 2017, Weaving Group sold the remaining 32% of its shares to David Neeleman (who was known to be involved with Azul Brazilian Airlines and

, and previously had ties to

JetBlue JetBlue Airways Corporation, stylized as jetBlue, is an American major airline headquartered in Long Island City, in Queens, New York City. Primarily a point-to-point carrier, JetBlue's network features six focus cities including its main hub ...

)⁷, thereby withdrawing from the company. At the request and with the support of the three Aigle Azur shareholders HNA Group, David Neeleman, and Lu Azur, Frantz Yvelin was named CEO of Aigle Azur⁸, becoming the third entrepreneur to lead the company. Frantz Yvelin previously founded L'Avion in 2006 (now Openskies) and La Compagnie in 2013. 2017 also saw the launch of routes to

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, Berlin Tegel, and Moscow Domodedovo, and two Airbus A330 aircraft were ordered for the launch of long-haul flights. On 29 March 2018, Frantz Yvelin held a press conference in Paris to present the company's new strategic directions. After major development of the network in 2017, the company announced new long-haul routes to São Paulo and Beijing to open in July and September 2018, respectively, with year-round service. Aigle Azur received two Airbus A330-200 aircraft formerly operated by Air Berlin in April 2018 to operate these two routes. Both were equipped with new cabins and a new visual identity⁹. Aigle Azur also launched its first domestic route in 2018, between Lyon and Nantes, as well as a service to Italy (Milan). The company also developed new partnerships, including with Air Caraïbes, S7 Airlines, and

, in addition to the existing ones with Azul and Hainan Airlines. On 22 January 2019, Aigle Azur announced it would launch a regular route to Kyiv by 18 April 2019. French businessman Gerard Houa – who controls around 20% of the carrier – tried to take control but was rejected by HNA Group and David Neeleman. After that, the carrier was placed under the control of a temporary administrator on 27 August 2019 at the request of its president.

Bankruptcy and liquidation

Aigle Azur filed for bankruptcy and was placed in

on 2 September 2019, while it continued to operate flights. Flights to Mali, Brazil and Portugal were suspended as of 5 September, and ticket sales ceased for all flights after 10 September. Later on 5 September, the receiver decided to suspend all flights as of the evening of 6 September, citing the company's financial situation and operational difficulties. A deadline of 9 September was set for takeover offers. Aigle Azur's 9,800 slots at Orly are reportedly of particular interest; the slots cannot be purchased directly, however, only via a takeover of the company. In total, 14 takeover offers were received. Confirmed bids to take over a significant proportion of assets were received from

, Groupe Dubreuil (owners of Air Caraïbes and French Bee) and Lu Azur (owned by former shareholder Gerard Houa). Expressions of interest primarily for activities at Orly were received from

Vueling Vueling S.A. (, ) is a List of airlines of Spain, Spanish low-cost airline based at Viladecans in Greater Barcelona with operating bases at Barcelona–El Prat Airport (main); Orly Airport, Paris-Orly Airport in Paris, France; Schiphol Airport, ...

and other unnamed bidders. A commercial court hearing on 16 September gave bidders until 18 September to submit revised proposals. A joint bid from Air France and Groupe Dubreuil was deemed by trade unions to offer the best conditions for personnel, though legal problems relating to the conditions on which personnel would be transferred to the new owner remained to be resolved. The receivership period was extended until 27 September to allow negotiations to continue. None of the bids proved viable, and the airline was formally liquidated by the commercial court on 27 September 2019.

Livery and logo

Aigle Azur most recently used a “Eurowhite”-type livery, with white paint along the front of the fuselage and the company's name in navy blue. The tail represented a cloud in a blue sky, with a schematic representation of an eagle flying over the top with spread wings. The engines and the

winglets Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft by reducing drag. Although there are several types of wing tip devices which function in different manners, their intended effect is always to reduce an aircraft ...

were also painted azure blue. From 1946 to 1955, the fuselage of Aigle Azur aircraft was bare metal, separated under the cabin windows by a dash of the same azure. The vertical fin, also in bare metal, was adorned with two parallel horizontal dashes on the

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

and the old logo (an eagle flying over a globe). At the end of 2012, the company unveiled new graphic branding: a new font using capital letters for the name, as well as a digital prototype of an A320 from the fleet; the tail (becoming navy blue) was adorned with the old logo, enlarged and in azure, with three parallel lines of the same colour. The

also remained azure blue.