101124 - PIONEERING SPIRIT - The Story of Air France and Predecessors

By Gunter Endres

Now one of the world’s leading airlines, Air France had its origins in the major restructuring of the French air transport industry through the merger of Air-Orient, Air Union, Société Générale de Transports Aérien (SGTA) and Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne (CIDNA), which became the Société Central pour l’Exploitation de Lignes Aériennes (SCELA). This was renamed Air France on 30 August 1933, following the takeover of the assets of the bankrupt Aéropostale. The above airlines themselves represented the consolidation of a crowded field of pioneering companies that emerged immediately after the First World War, both in France and in French possessions overseas, taking advantage of a fledgling but burgeoning aircraft industry.