FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0805.PDF
FLIGHT, 10 June 1955 803 France's first jet airliner, the S.E.210 Caravelle, shown during its first take-off on May 28th at Toulouse-Blagnac. FRENCH COMMERCIAL AVIATION Extensive World Networks: Plans for Domestic-route Expansion HTHE first French air services, which can also claim to have been•*- first in the world, started in 1919 with the formation of several companies. In December 1918, the Latecoere Airline Companyhad made the first proving flight between Toulouse and Barce- lona with a view to establishing a route to Africa and eventuallyto South America as well. A few months later came services to Rabat (September 1919) and to Casablanca (December 1919).At the same time, the Farman Company inaugurated services between Paris and London and Paris and Brussels (February1919). Several airlines were started after this, expending great effortand suffering heavy losses in the process; but the development of air transport in other countries, and the necessity for intensi-fying efforts in order to resist international competition, made it necessary at the beginning of 1931 to establish a more efficientorganization and closer co-ordination of services. Therefore, on August 30tk, 1933, Air Orient, Air Union, the CompagnieGenerale des Transports (Farman) and the Compagnie Inter- nationale des Transports Aeriens merged to form Air France. Immediately Air France took over and co-ordinated the opera-tion of the routes of these companies. The network—comprising 24 lines and 38,000 km—linked France v/ith the principal Euro-pean capitals, the major cities of North Africa, Dakar (and South America through a surface link., Dakar-Natal), Tripoli and Saigon.On the eve of the World War 2 France ranked third in world air transport, with a route-length of 65,700 km, following theUnited States with 115,000 km, and the U.S.S.R. with 93,000 km. In traffic density France came fifth after the United States, theU.S.S.R., Great Britain and Canada. At the liberation, French airlines were militarized under thedirection of the provisional government and divided into three networks. It was not until Air France began operations oncemore that regular links between metropolitan France, her colonies, and other countries were re-established. In 1945, the number of passengers carried already exceededthe pre-war level, and, in 1946, the Air France network included 68 routes and covered 160,000 km, as opposed to 46,000 km in1938. In 1949, for the first time, the passenger-kilometres figure passed the thousand million mark, and by 1954 this figure too hadbeen doubled. These remarkable results, obtained over a world- wide network, show the extent of the activity of the Frenchnational airline company; the route mileage covered is, at the moment, over 300,000 km. Independent Companies.—A number of private companiessprang up after the war beside Air France. Their operations were necessary to create competition and, principally, in orderto prevent Air France from weakening itself by over-extending an already stretched route network. Combined, the French air-lines now rank third in the world behind the U.S.A. and Great Britain. During 1954 the British companies carried a greaternumber of passengers but, by contrast, the French were ahead in freight transport. After the war a great number of private operators began busi-ness, but gradually they disappeared, either because they over- An Air France Super Con- stellation, representative of much of this airline's Ameri- can equipment. Twelve of the new Lockheed L-1649As have also just been ordered.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
