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Air Liberté

Air Liberté
Air Liberte.svg
IATA ICAO Callsign
IJ LIB -
Founded July 1987
Ceased operations 2003
Alliance Oneworld (affiliate) (1999-2000)
Fleet size 53 (total during operations)
Parent company British Airways (70%)(1997-2000)
Headquarters Air Liberté: Rungis, France
Air Lib: Building 363
Orly Airport
Paray-Vieille-Poste
Key people Eric Schulz (CEO)
Jean-Charles Corbet (former CEO of Air Lib)
Website airliberte.fr

Air Liberté (later known as ) was an airline in France founded in July 1987. Air Liberté was headquartered in Rungis. Air Lib was headquartered in Orly Airport Building 363 in Paray-Vieille-Poste.

Air Liberté began operations in April 1988 with a leased MD-83. It mainly operated to destinations in European and Mediterranean holiday resorts, however it had some interncontinental routes. A route to Montreal was inaugurated in 1992, 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. 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 5 Boeing 737-200 airplanes, 8 McDonnell Douglas MD-83 planes and 5 McDonnell Douglas DC-10 planes.

1996 also brought with it financial distress. The airline lost 1 billion FF ($181 million) that year, and in 1997 British Airways acquired 70% of the shareholding. 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. 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". On 22 September 2001 the airline was renamed "Air Lib". 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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