1946–1955 Societé Aigle Azur S.A. was founded in April 1946 by Sylvain Floirat, becoming the first post-war privately established air carrier in France. It began operating the following September with a few French-manufactured
Junkers Ju 52s with an increased accommodation up to 32 seats. The founder was also able to secure transport contracts with the government authorities, such as flights for overseas teachers during the school holidays, the first destinations being Tunisia and Lebanon. Purchasing more modern equipment from American surplus allowed the company to extend its activities, mainly into
Indochina and Algeria, where an important market was the repatriation of French citizens. By the end of the decade the first scheduled connections had been launched, which soon extended to the most distant destinations. By September 1951 routes to Dakar (Senegal) and Brazzaville (Congo) were operated and in early 1952 a route to Saigon-Hanoi (today in Vietnam) was opened. Instrumental to the growth of the company were aircraft such as
Airspeed AS.65,
Boeing 307,
Bristol 170,
Curtiss C-46,
Douglas DC3,
Douglas DC4,
Douglas DC-6,
SO.30 Bretagne. To better manage the fleet, local subsidiaries were created such as
Aigle Azur Maroc,
Aigle Azur Indochine. The C-46s were initially assigned to the Morocco market but later to the whole North Africa and to Indochina. DC 3s were bought in 1947/1948 and acquisitions went on until 1954 but some of them were lost during the war between French armed forces and Vietminh fighting units. Essentially to meet military requirements, between 1952 and 1954 seven SO.30Ps were purchased for Aigle Azur Extreme Orient. All were equipped with a large cargo door and powered by Turbomeca "Palas" jet engines. Almost all of them were also used by Air Laos. Aigle Azur Maroc, which started operations with DC 3s, was merged into a local airline. In 1954 Aigle Azur Indochine merged to form
Aigle Azur Extreme Orient which inherited some Boeing 307s, C-46s and DC 3s and operated them until 1960. 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.
Premise Aigle Azur was a French airline based and headquartered at
Paris Orly Airport. It operated scheduled flights from France to 21 destinations across
Europe,
Africa, and the
Middle East, 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. Reportedly Aigle Azur's 9,800 slots at Orly were of particular interest but could not 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
Air France, Groupe Dubreuil (owner 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
EasyJet,
Vueling 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. ==Livery and logo==