Corsair International, legally ''Corsair S.A.'', previously Corsairfly and Corse Air International, is 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 ...

headquartered in

Rungis Rungis () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France, in the department of Val-de-Marne, Île-de-France. It is best known as the location of the large wholesale food market serving the Paris metropolitan area and beyond, the '' Mar ...

and based at

Orly Airport Paris Orly Airport (, ) is one of two international airports serving Paris, France, the other one being Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It is located partially in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi, south of Paris. It serves as a sec ...

. It is a subsidiary of German investor Intro Aviation (53%) and

TUI Group TUI AG (trading as TUI Group) is a German multinational leisure, travel and tourism company; it is the largest such company in the world. TUI is an acronym for ''Touristik Union International'' ("Tourism Union International"). TUI AG was known a ...

(27%). It operates scheduled long-haul services to leisure destinations in the

French overseas territories Overseas France (, also ) consists of 13 French territories outside Europe, mostly the remnants of the French colonial empire that remained a part of the French state under various statuses after decolonisation. Most are part of the European ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, as well as charter flights to other destinations.

History

Early years

The airline was established in 1981 and started operations on 17 May 1981 as Corse Air International. It was founded by the

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

n Rossi family. In 1990 it was acquired by Nouvelles Frontières, a French tour operator, and the name was changed to Corsair. In 1991, the airline obtained worldwide traffic rights. In 2000, the

, one of the world's leading tour-operator groups, took over Nouvelles Frontières. In 2004, Corsair aircraft were repainted with the colours of TUI, a blue fuselage with the TUI-logo, like its sister airlines. At the end of 2005, the TUI Group decided to rename all its affiliated airlines TUIfly. As an interim step Corsair aircraft were repainted with Corsairfly markings, although all airlines in the group were expected to have adopted the common TUIfly brand by 2008. The airline held the record for most seats on a passenger aircraft, with 587 seats on its

Boeing 747-400 The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The ''Advanced Series 300'' was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, target ...

s, until they received a new interior which led to a new lower capacity of 533 passengers. In 2008, the airline announced its intention to expand its medium-haul network to the Mediterranean and its long-haul network to Canada and the United States (where it regularly flew in the 1990s), including the establishment of codeshare agreements with

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada, by size and passengers carried. Air Canada is headquartered in the borough of Saint-Laurent in the city of Montreal. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and cha ...

. The first destination in this expansion was Miami in June 2010, but the rest of the plan was later abandoned due to a change in the airline's strategy.

Development since 2010

In May 2010 Corsairfly announced its "Takeoff 2012" modernisation plan, including a reduction of workforce by 25%, the replacement of three

aircraft by two

Airbus A330-300 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body airliner developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus began developing larger A300 derivatives in the mid–1970s, giving rise to the A330 twinjet as well as the Airbus A340 quadjet, and launched both designs along ...

aircraft from

, the refurbishment of all aircraft cabins, leaving the charter flights market, and the termination of routes to Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Québec City, Moncton and Israel. In March 2012 the airline announced it would change its name to Corsair International and unveiled a new corporate image corresponding to planned operational changes. In 2015 Corsair's owner, German tourism company TUI Group, tried to sell the loss-making airline. After take-over negotiations with

Air Caraïbes Air Caraïbes () is a French airline based in the French West Indies, with its headquarters in Les Abymes in Guadeloupe. The airline's main base of operations is at Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe, with a focus city at ...

, the potential buyer walked away after advanced talks due to ongoing opposition from Corsair's staff unions regarding the proposed future developments and cost reductions. Also in 2015, TUI Group announced that all TUI companies and airlines except Corsair were to use the TUI name. In late 2018 it was reported that the TUI Group had restarted talks to sell the loss-making airline. It was expected to be sold by the end of the year to German investment corporation ''Intro'', which had owned several other airlines in the past. In May 2018, a Corsair shareholder announced that Corsair International would retire its three remaining

s by September 2021 as part of fleet renewal and replacement plans. In March 2019, Corsair officially announced that it would lease three Airbus A330-900s to replace its three

s. In March 2019 TUI announced that it had agreed to sell 53% of Corsair to a German airline investor, ''Intro Aviation'', for an undisclosed sum. TUI would retain 27% of the airline, while employees would hold the remaining 20%. In October 2019, Corsair ended its

codeshare agreement A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

with

. The company announced on 19 April 2020 that it would immediately retire its three Boeing 747-400s because of the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

crisis and grounding. The then mixed fleet would have been transitioned to an all-A330 fleet, expected to comprise 13 aircraft by 2023. On 17 August 2021, Corsair and

Air Austral Air Austral is a French airline that is also the flag carrier of the Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of Réunion. The airline is based at Roland Garros Airport. It operates scheduled services from Réu ...

announced the formation of a joint venture between the two companies. On 13 March 2024, Corsair received its first of four additional Airbus A330-900s as part of transitioning to a fleet composed entirely of A330-900s, thus retiring its remaining A330-300 aircraft by the end of the year.

Destinations

, Corsair International operates or has previously operated to the following destinations:

Airline partnerships

Corsair International has

interlining Interlining, also known as interline ticketing and interline booking, is a voluntary commercial agreement between individual airlines to handle passengers traveling on itineraries that require multiple flights on multiple airlines. Such agreemen ...

agreements with the following airlines: *

Air Antilles Air Antilles is a French regional airline based at Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe. It operates scheduled and seasonal services throughout the French Antilles. History The airline began operations as ''Air Antilles Expre ...

APG Airlines APG Airlines, a French airline based at Toulouse, France that was created by APG. It operates flights between Toulouse Blagnac Airport and Lorient Airport. APG Airlines is a member of IATA and sits on the board of ERA An era is a span of ti ...

Emirates Emirates may refer to: * United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective ...

*Hahn Air *

ITA Airways Italia Trasporto Aereo S.p.A. (), doing business as ITA Airways, is the flag carrier of Italy. It is owned by the government of Italy, via the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and Lufthansa Group. The airline was founded in 2020 as a suc ...

Winair Winair (short for Windward Islands Airways International NV) is a government-owned Dutch regional airline based in Sint Maarten. Founded in 1961 by Georges Greaux and Hippolyte Ledee, It has a fleet of eight aircraft serving destinations mostl ...

The airline also partners with

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 ...

through its ''Worldwide by easyJet'' program, and additionally has

s with the

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

, the French national railway operator.

Fleet

Current fleet

, Corsair International operates an all-

Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body airliner developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus began developing larger A300 derivatives in the mid–1970s, giving rise to the A330 twinjet as well as the Airbus A340 quadjet, and launched both designs along ...

fleet composed of the following aircraft:

Former fleet

While the company started in business as an operator of short- and medium range aircraft such as the

Sud Aviation Caravelle The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle is a French jet airliner produced by Sud Aviation. It was developed by SNCASE in the early 1950s, and made its maiden flight on May 27, 1955. It included some de Havilland designs and components developed for t ...

and various versions of the

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

, beginning in the 1990s, it progressively shifted its operations to long-range only. As a long-range airline, Corsair has operated the following jet aircraft types:https://www.airliners.net, photos of Corsair aircraft

References

External links

* {{IATA members, europe Airlines of France Airlines established in 1981 French companies established in 1981 TUI Group