Minerve was a French airline, headquartered in the 1st arrondissement of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, that operated from 1975 until it merged with AOM to form AOM French Airlines in 1992.

History

Minerve began operations in 1975 using

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 ...

aircraft on charter flights from Paris-Le Bourget airport. Permission was granted for charter flights to the United States in 1983 and those were operated first with

Douglas DC-8 The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is an early long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body jetliner designed and produced by the American Douglas Aircraft Company. Work began in 1952 towards the United States Air Force's (USA ...

jets and later on with a

Boeing 747-200 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, ...

wide body jetliner. For charter flights to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

the Caravelles were used until replaced in 1987 by McDonnell Douglas MD-83. Minerve wanted to expand into North America and created a subsidiary in Canada called Minerve Canada, but that venture did not last long and it had a negative effect on the parent company. Other investments in Jet Alsace and Jet Fret created more financial burdens which led to the sale of 50% of the stock to the tour operator Club Méditerranée. To expand operations, three McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 wide body jetliners were acquired for long-range services. In 1991 Minerve was operating scheduled passenger services between Paris and Bangkok, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Nice, San Francisco and Tahiti with DC-10-30 jets being primarily operated on the international routes. The same year, the airline published a joint timetable with French air carrier Air Liberté. In 1992 Minerve merged with Air Outre Mer to form AOM French Airlines.Hengi, page 127

Fleet details

*5 – Sud SE-210 Caravelle *3 – Douglas DC-8-53 *3 – Douglas DC-8-61 *1 – Douglas DC-8-62 *2 – Douglas DC-8-73 *1 –

*3 – McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 *4 – McDonnell Douglas MD-83

References

External links

*
Fleet and code information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minerve (Airline) Defunct airlines of France Airlines established in 1975 Airlines disestablished in 1992