Société Aigle Azur Transports Aériens is an airline with its head office in Tremblay-en-France, France, near Paris. It operates domestic scheduled passenger services and international services to Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia in North Africa as well as Portugal, Italy and Mali. It also operates charter, cargo and wet lease services. Its main bases are Orly Airport and Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris.^[1] Aigle Azur is also accredited by IATA with the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) for its safety practices.^[2]

History[link]

An Aigle Azur Douglas DC-3 at Manchester Airport in 1953 fitted with ventral Turbomeca Palas booster jet for "hot and high operations".

In April 1946, Sylvain Floirat established the original Aigle Azur as one of the first wholly privately owned, independent airlines in post-war France. Between 1946 and 1955, the airline operated a large fleet of Douglas DC-3s.^[3]

During the early 1950s, Aigle Azur began operating long-haul scheduled routes linking metropolitan France with Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. France's Ministry of Public Works and Transport had transferred Air France's traffic rights for these routes to the country's newly created independent airlines, including Aigle Azur.^[4]

In 1970, the airline was re-constituted as a regional airline named Lucas Aviation.^[1] The re-formed airline's corporate and operational headquarters was at Paris Pontoise Airport,^[5] located in Boissy l'Aillerie.^[6][7] Lucas Aviation initially traded as Lucas Air Transport and operated regional scheduled services, including a year-round operation linking Deauville with London Gatwick.^[5] The name subsequently changed once more to Lucas Aigle Azur.^[1]

In May 2001, Groupe GOFAST acquired Lucas Aigle Azur from its previous owners, once again changing the name to Aigle Azur, its original name. The new owner refocused the airline as a mainstream short- to medium-haul scheduled and charter carrier. Aigle Azur began replacing its Boeing 737s with Airbus A320 family aircraft. It has 450 employees as of May 2007.^[1]

Registered office

A plane operated by France's Aigle Azur landed in Baghdad on 31-10-2010 becoming the first flight from a European airline to arrive in the city since a 1990 international embargo on Iraq after 20 years.

Corporate affairs[link]

The airline's administrative head office is in Tremblay-en-France, near Paris.^[8][9] The airline's registered office is in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris.^[9]

Destinations[link]

The majority of Aigle Azur's international flights are to Africa; there are also flights to Spain, Portugal and Basel. France is also covered.

Fleet[link]

An Aigle Azur Airbus A321-200 at Paris-Orly Airport (2006).

As of April 2011, the Aigle Azur fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 9.3 years:^[10]

Incidents and accidents[link]

There were several hull-loss accidents involving Aigle Azur aircraft between 1949 and 1954, most of which took place in French Indochina, today's Laos or Vietnam.

• On 27 November 1949, an Aigle Azur Douglas C-47 Skytrain (registered F-OABJ) was shot down^{[by whom?]} near Dong Khe,^[11] where a major battle in the First Indochina War would take place 10 months later.
• On 9 July 1950, an Aigle Azur Douglas C-47 Skytrain (registered F-BFGL) crashed shortly after take-off from Casablanca (then in France), resulting in the 18 passengers and 4 crew members on board being killed.^[12]
• On 12 February 1951, another Aigle Azur Skytrain (registered F-OABK) was damaged beyond repair in a crash landing at Luang Prabang Airport (in today's Laos, then French Indochina). There were no fatalities.^[13]
• On 17 March 1953, an Aigle Azur Douglas C-47 Skytrain (registered F-BEFG) crashed during a bad-weather landing attempt at Da Nang Airport following a flight from Hue-Phu Bai Airport, resulting in the death of the eight persons on board.^[14]
• On 16 April 1953, another Aigle Azur C-47 (registered F-BESS) lost one wing shortly after take-off from Hanoi on a military charter flight to Nà Sản Airport. The aircraft subsequently crashed, and the 27 passengers and 3 crew members on board died.^[15]
• On 19 June 1953 an Aigle Azur Douglas C-47 (registered F-BEST) crashed in a hill after a fire had broken out on board, killing the 29 passengers and 5 crew members (which makes it the deadliest accident of the airline to date). The aircraft had been on a flight from Vientiane Airport to Saigon Airport. The wreckage could only be found ten days later.^[16]
• On 31 January 1954, the pilots of an Aigle Azur Skytrain (registered F-BGXD) which was due to operate a flight out of Dien Bien Phu Airport accidentally retracted the landing gear when the aircraft had not taken off yet, resulting in the airframe being damaged beyond repair.^[17]
• On 4 March 1954, during the First Indochina War, at around 04:00 local time, an Aigle Azur Douglas DC-3 (registered F-OAPC) that was parked at Gia Lam Airport, Hanoi, was destroyed by Vietnamese rebels.^[18]
• On 30 August 1954, an Aigle Azur Sud-Ouest Bretagne (registered F-BEHS) was damaged beyond repair during an emergency landing at Hanoi.^[19]

In more recent times, there was only one (non-fatal) incident involving an Aigle Azur aircraft:

• On 8 January 2008 at 08:51 local time, an Aigle Azur Airbus A321-200 (registered F-GUAA) that was operating on Flight 258 from Paris-Orly Airport to Algiers Airport, was substantially damaged during a hard landing and subsequent tailstrike at its destination airport, during which a two metre long fuselage gash occurred. This was due to a faulty handling of the thrust lever by the commanding pilot (who was sitting in the right seat instead of the usual left one he was accustomed to). There were no serious injuries under the 59 passengers and 8 crew members on board, and the aircraft could be repaired.^[20]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Paris portal
	Companies portal
	Aviation portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aigle Azur

• Official website (French)
• Timetable Images - Lucas Air Transport, Lucas Aigle Azur, Aigle Azur

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