90 years ago, on October 7, 1933, Jean-Pierre Cot, appointed Air Minister a few months earlier, officially announced in Le Bourget the birth of Air France. Before an enthusiastic audience, he explains what he expects from the national company born from the merger of four French airlines, including the powerful Air Union and Air Orient.
Air France will have to defend “the general interest”, unite “all good will, intelligence and material means”, to create “a bond between peoples”. Presented as an “instrument of peace”, the company that carries the national flag “will maintain the harmony of relations between peoples and will serve, abroad, the prestige of the country.” In a nutshell, the destiny of Air France is mapped out.
In 20 years, the flight time between Paris and New York will be divided by five
A destination summarized in a series of podcasts that BFM Business It invites you to discover it starting this Monday, October 9. You may know that in 1937 the press welcomed a notable acceleration of the France-Indochina service provided by Air France. The journey that will then begin in Marseille will no longer last seven days but… six and a half days, thanks to the creation of a landing site in Tripoli, Syria. “Until now, passengers disembarked from the plane in Damascus and, to get to Tripoli, they had to travel more than 200 kilometers by car through the mountains of Lebanon,” says the Indochina storyteller in its March 27 edition.
You will discover how the duration of the Paris-New York flight could go from almost 17 hours in the fifties to 3 and a half hours from 1977, thanks to a technological flagship that Air France was the only one to have together with British Airways: the Concorde . A flight attendant who served on board this legendary plane from 1989 to the end will tell you what the trip was like. And how timed and calibrated everything was. Even the passenger seating followed a certain protocol. For example, the first row was automatically reserved for personalities from around the world who, at the request of the government, were able to have it at the last minute.
And in 10 years, what will Air France be like?
Air France has been concerned for years to show as many people as possible the smile of the stars who occupy their seats on board its planes. Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Claudia Cardinale, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin were among the hundreds of celebrities who posed in front of the lens of six great photographers hired for this purpose by the company.
After history, the future. The final part of this podcast series will be dedicated to the future. What will Air France be like in ten years, when it celebrates its centenary? Anne Rigail, its general director, will tell us how the company’s fleet – successor to Concorde? – will evolve, if its network will be different, how artificial intelligence will or will not interfere in the daily lives of its employees and passengers.
Source: BFM TV
