Air Charter International
Air Charter was a French charter airline which has carried out regular flights on behalf of Air France since the mid- 1990 's.
Chronicle
Air Charter was founded on February 7, 1966 under the name Société Française d' Aérienne AFFRETEMENTS ( SAFA) as a subsidiary of Air France to offer charter services from Paris to the French Mediterranean coast. The start of flight operations took place on July 25, 1966 with two leased from parent company Sud Aviation Caravelle machines of the types and Lockheed Super Constellation. In its first year of existence, the company transported 168,000 passengers.
The SAFA received on 14 May 1969, the authorization for international charter flights and then changed on December 8, 1969 changed its name to Air Charter International ( ACI) to. In 1971, the company held a 60 percent share of the French charter market and carried with seven machines of the type Caravelle around 420,000 passengers. In the following year the first two Boeing 727-200 supplemented the fleet. The company closed in February 1978 long-term lease agreements with the airlines Euralair and EAS to use their aircraft during the high-demand summer months. In the same year, the French airline Air Inter involved with 20 percent of the ACI. As a result of this investment, the company was able to draw on weekends short on aircraft of Air Inter and include more airports in its network. In 1982, ACI first offered charter services to New York. However, the Company operated the transatlantic routes not own machines, but with leased Boeing 747 of Air France.
In 1984, the company renamed itself Air Charter and led at the same time a new paint job. The Company continuously expanded its route network in the 1980 years further. In addition to Paris, in particular, Lourdes has developed into an important location for the company due to the strong pilgrim traffic. In 1987, flew charter of 13 French airports tourist destinations in Greece, Spain, Tunisia, Israel, Morocco, Malta, Egypt, Senegal and Turkey regularly with their own aircraft to. In addition, flights were conducted in the USA and Canada in cooperation with Air France. The company promoted first time in 1988 more than 2 million passengers. In the same year, the company received the first widebody aircraft of the type Airbus A300. Aircraft of the type Airbus A320 replaced from 1994, the Boeing 727
Although charter in 1991 took over from the numerous routes belonging to the Air France group Aéromaritime, the market share and the number of passengers the company in the 1990 years declined steadily. In order to improve the utilization of the aircraft, the Air France charter ceded some of their 1996 line stretching from the Air. First, an Airbus A320 of the subsidiary was stationed in Guadeloupe and used on airline flights in the U.S. in winter 1996/97. In the summer of 1997, Air Charter took over the outgoing line from Paris to Palma, Malaga and Seville. Due to the continued decline in passenger numbers and an unfavorable cost structure, the Air France the economic end of the charter announced in autumn 1998. The adjustment of flight operations on 24 October 1998. During the last year of operation, the company carried 820 742 passengers.
Used aircraft
The following types of aircraft put the company in an own colors:
- Airbus A300B4 -203
- Airbus A310 -324
- Airbus A320 -200
- Boeing 727-200
- Boeing 737-200, 737-400 and 737-500
The company also took advantage of the following types of aircraft in foreign paint on your own network:
- Boeing 747-200 Air France
- Dassault Mercure of Air Inter
- Fokker F- 28 of the TAT
- Lockheed Super Constellation of Air France