The early years Air Afrique was originally conceived in as a joint subsidiary of
Air France and
Union Aéromaritime de Transport (UAT) to take over the regional services these airlines had operated in
Africa. B at
Manchester Airport in 1963 Cheikh Fall was appointed as the first
CEO of the company on . Two
DC-8s were the first jets ordered by the airline in the same year. In , Cheikh Fall was appointed general manager of the company.
Union de Transports Aériens (UTA) was formed in from the
merger of UAT and
Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux (TAI). in . Two DC-4s were sold at the time in order for the company to afford the costs of these new aircraft. The Caravelles were deployed on African routes, replacing the DC-6s. In 1968, another DC-8-50 joined the fleet. By then, the route network included 22 African countries, along with
Bordeaux,
Lyon, Marseille,
Nice and Paris in France, Geneva in
Switzerland and New York in the United States (in agreement with Pan Am).
The 1970s standing at
Le Bourget Airport in 1977. A third aircraft of the type was delivered in 1971. The company ordered two
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s in , boosting the order with one more aircraft of the type the same year. Late in 1973, a fourth Caravelle was acquired from
Royal Jordanian Airlines and a Douglas DC-8-55F entered the fleet. Cheikh Fall was succeeded by Aoussou Koffi at the head of the company in 1974. This resulted in UTA's stake in Air Afrique passing into Air France's hands. The first
Airbus A310-304 entered the fleet in 1991. In 1994 the fleet comprised 12 aircraft and the carrier had more than 4,200 employees. Cash position dramatically worsened that year after a 50% devaluation of the CFA franc, a situation that led to the seizure of one fourth of the fleet, due to debt defaults, in the forthcoming years. Subsequently, the already indebted company had to lease in order to revert the lack of aircraft. It nevertheless suspended, or reduced the frequency on some routes, and
codeshared others. During 1995, the airline transported 761,000 passengers, losing . Also in 1995,
DHL started participating into the airline. One DC-10-30 was sold to
AOM French Airlines in February 1996. Billecart left Air Afrique in 1997 and was succeeded by Sir Harry Tirvangadum, a
Mauritian national, as Director General. Billecart's management was plagued of accusations. He claimed he failed to restructure the company due to the excessive interference from the governments that owned it, whereas employees accused him of worsening Air Afrique's financial position by acquiring four Airbus A310-300s. Tirvangadum reduced the debts to just 31 billion CFA francs. From all the member states, only Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Senegal provided their quota from a total of 20 billion CFA francs that were necessary to alleviate the financial difficulties of the carrier at that time. During Tirvangandum's mandate, Air Afrique entered a partnership with the
World Bank, which aimed operations to be restricted to Africa. In , the carrier reduced its fleet from 15 to 11 when four Airbus A310-300s were returned to the creditors. Late that year, debts rose to about . By that time, eleven countries on the
CFA zone were the major shareholders of the airline (70.4%), African and French investors had a participation of 13.7%, Air France had a 12.2% stake, and DHL owned 3.2%.
The final years , the carrier had 4,440 employees, the fleet comprised one
Antonov An-12, two
Airbus A300-600Rs, three
Airbus A300B4-200s, two
Airbus A310-300s, two
Boeing 707-320Cs, five
Boeing 737-300s and a
Boeing 767-300ER, whereas two
Airbus A330-200s were on order. At the same time, the route network included
Abidjan,
Abu Dhabi,
Accra,
Athens,
Bamako,
Bangui,
Banjul,
Beirut,
Bissau,
Bordeaux,
Brazzaville,
Casablanca,
Conakry,
Cotonou,
Dakar,
Douala,
Geneva,
Jeddah,
Johannesburg,
Lagos,
Libreville,
Lisbon,
Lomé,
Malabo,
Marseille,
Monrovia,
Nairobi,
N'Djamena,
New York,
Niamey,
Nouakchott,
Ouagadougou, Paris,
Pointe-Noire,
Rome and
Zürich. In , Jeffrey Erickson, former CEO of
Trans World Airlines, attempted to re-structure the heavily indebted carrier, backed by both a consultancy and a
World Bank grant, setting up a 14-month privatization plan. At that time schedules were commonly missed as the airline was suffering a lack of aircraft. By , Air Afrique still ranked among the top five
African airlines alongside
EgyptAir,
Kenya Airways,
Royal Air Maroc and
South African Airways but debts had risen to . Later that year, the airline appealed to the French carrier Air France –still a minor shareholder in Air Afrique– for negotiation capacity. Air France became the major shareholder of the company when its holding was raised to 35% after a cash injection. The eleven African Governments reduced its participation in Air Afrique to 22%, 5% belonged to the employees, and the remaining stake were owned by other investors. The plan Air France had in mind was to close down Air Afrique and set up a new airline using the same name. Despite this, Air Afrique went out of business in , in the wake of the downturn in the aviation industry created by the
2001-09-11 attacks, and was never revived. Less than a year earlier the company had about 4,600 employees to service a fleet of just six planes; at the time of closure, it had one leased operative aircraft, and partly owned
Air Burkina (17%),
Air Mali (11.5%) and
Air Mauritanie (32%). The carrier was declared bankrupt on . Air France took over most of Air Afrique routes. ==Destinations==