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Air Liberté

Defunct airline of France (1987–2003) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

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History

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Air Liberté began operations in April 1988 with a leased McDonnell Douglas MD-80. It mainly operated to destinations in European and Mediterranean holiday resorts, however it had some intercontinental routes. In 1991, Air Liberte published a joint timetable with French air carrier Minerve which was operating flights to San Francisco and Papeete, Tahiti as well as to Pointe-à-Pitre and Fort-de-France in the Caribbean at the time.[4] A route to Montreal was inaugurated in 1992,[5] 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 Airport. 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 five Boeing 737-200s, eight McDonnell Douglas MD-83s and five McDonnell Douglas DC-10s.

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1996 also brought with it financial distress. The airline lost 1 billion francs that year, and in 1997 British Airways acquired a 67% shareholding.[6] 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.[citation needed] On 5 May 2000, BA sold Air Liberté to a partnership between Taitbout Antibes and Swissair.

On 25 March 2001 AOM French Airlines merged with Air Liberté, the airline retaining the name "Air Liberté".[7] On 22 September 2001 the airline was renamed Air Lib[8] But in October, Swissair went bankrupt, unable to make all scheduled payments. The French Government then granted a loan of €30.5 million to the company.

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Despite government aid, the airline accumulated debts of €120 million and was forced to declare bankruptcy in August 2002. The government then ordered the implementation of a new restructuring plan before the end of the year. Several projects were considered without result, and the company was liquidated on 17 February 2003. As a result, no other competing international-level full-service French airline had appeared, leaving only Air France (now controlled by Air France–KLM) as a de facto monopoly until French Bee was founded in 2016.

Destinations

France

French overseas departments and territories

International routes

Fleet

Air Liberté operated the following aircraft during operations:[9]

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Accidents & Incidents

  • 25 May 2000: Air Liberté Flight 8807, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (F-GHED) collided on the runway with a Short 330 freighter aircraft operated by Streamline Aviation. The Short had been cleared to line up at an intermediate taxiway on the runway that the MD-83 was departing from. The wing of the MD-83 struck the cockpit of the Short, killing its first officer and injuring the captain. The MD-83 aborted takeoff with no casualties on board, and was repaired and returned to service.[10]
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References

External links

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