AOM French Airlines

If you go through old photos from 1990s Paris Orly, alongside Air France and Air Inter you keep coming across a third airline: AOM French Airlines. With its DC-10-30s it flew to the French overseas territories, with MD-83s it challenged Air Inter domestically, and in the end it landed in Swissair’s web of holdings. Here you will learn where AOM came from, what defined its fleet, how to recognize it in old pictures and how it became Air Lib.

AOM at a glance

AOM French Airlines was a Paris scheduled airline based in Paray-Vieille-Poste, right at Paris Orly Airport. In the 1990s it was considered France’s second-largest airline after Air France. Its profile was unusual: a large part of the business consisted of long-haul routes to the French overseas territories, that is, to La Réunion, the Caribbean, French Guiana and the Pacific. In addition, AOM flew domestic routes from Orly as well as charter and vacation destinations.

The name AOM stands for Air Outre Mer, “Air Overseas”. Legally, the company was called AOM-Minerve S.A., because the airline emerged from two companies. It flew under the name AOM French Airlines from January 1, 1992. The first chief executive was Marc Rochet, who led the company until 1996.

The owner for a long time was the CDR (Consortium de Réalisation), a state company that disposed of problem holdings of the bank Crédit Lyonnais. The CDR wanted to sell AOM, not expand it – investments did not materialize. Only in 1999 did a strategic partner, Swissair, come into play.

Codes and callsigns

• IATA code IW: appeared before flight numbers, on tickets and baggage tags.
• ICAO code AOM: used by air traffic control to identify flights – conveniently identical to the brand name.
• Callsign FRENCH LINES: how the crews identified themselves on the radio.

Incidentally, the IATA code IW outlived AOM: the later low-cost brand Air Lib Express marketed its domestic flights from Orly under IW. On old tickets or timetables with an IW flight number, you therefore have to watch the date. How IATA and ICAO codes relate and why they are often passed on is explained in the article on IATA and ICAO codes.

Two roots: Air Outre Mer and Minerve

Air Outre Mer from La Réunion

The first root lay in the Indian Ocean. Air Outre Mer was founded on La Réunion in the late 1980s – sources give 1987 in some cases, 1988 in others. That became possible because Air France had lost its monopoly on the routes to the overseas territories in the mid-1980s. On May 28, 1990, Air Outre Mer began flight operations, on long-haul with a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30. That set the type that defined AOM to the end.

Minerve: charter from Orly

The second root was Minerve, a charter airline founded in 1976. It began with a Sud Aviation Caravelle at Le Bourget, moved to Orly in 1979 and later used Douglas DC-8s on long-haul. From 1986, Minerve also flew to the overseas territories, and in 1988 it became the first French charter airline to use a Boeing 747-200.

In May 1991, Minerve ventured an attack on the domestic market: with MD-83s it opened the Orly–Nice route and thus competed directly with Air Inter. The experiment brought heavy losses. Still in 1991, the company passed via Club Méditerranée to Altus Finance, a subsidiary of Crédit Lyonnais; in October 1991 the merger with Air Outre Mer was agreed.

The route network

AOM connected Orly with a colorful mix of domestic, overseas and vacation destinations. The heart was the long-haul routes to the overseas territories – routes with many family visits, civil servants and vacationers, on which a large aircraft with a high seat count was in demand.

Region	Destinations (selection)	Typical type
France (mainland)	Marseille, Nice, Toulon-Hyères, Perpignan	MD-83
Indian Ocean	Saint-Denis (La Réunion)	DC-10-30
Caribbean and South America	Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre, Saint-Martin, Cayenne	DC-10-30
Pacific	Papeete (Tahiti), Nouméa (New Caledonia)	DC-10-30
International	Colombo, Sydney, Malé, Havana, Varadero, Punta Cana, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Zurich	DC-10-30, later A340

The route to New Caledonia was especially long: from November 1995, AOM flew from Paris via Colombo and Sydney to Nouméa, whereas before the route went via Bangkok. Such multiple stops were typical for the DC-10’s range. With group membership in Swissair, Zurich also came into the network.

On the overseas routes, you met AOM alongside Air France, the charter airline Corsair and – depending on the region – companies like Air Austral or Air Tahiti Nui. How scheduled and charter service differ is explained in the article Charter flight vs. scheduled flight.

The fight over Orly-Ouest

Domestically, AOM was under pressure. At the instigation of Air France and the airport operator, the airline had to move its flights from the west terminal Orly-Ouest to the older south terminal Orly-Sud. For a domestic business that depended on connecting passengers and business travelers, that was a noticeable disadvantage. AOM protested publicly – at times even with the slogan “Je veux rester à Orly Ouest!” (“I want to stay at Orly-Ouest!”) on its own aircraft.

The fleet: DC-10 and MD-83

AOM was a typical McDonnell Douglas airline of the 1990s. Two models carried almost the entire program, with numerous short-term and leased aircraft added. The overview is based on the available fleet lists:

Type	Number	Period	Use and note
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30	15	1990–2001	Backbone of long-haul to the overseas territories
McDonnell Douglas MD-83	14	1992–2001	Domestic and medium-haul from Orly
Airbus A340-200	3	1999–2001	Long-haul in the Swissair era
Airbus A340-300	2	2000–2001	Long-haul in the Swissair era
Boeing 737-500	3	1998–2000	Leased from LOT
Boeing 747-200B	1	1992–1993	Legacy from the Minerve era
Douglas DC-8-62CF/-73	1 each	1992	From the Minerve era
MD-82, MD-87, Fokker 100, 737-200, A300B4	1 each	briefly	Leased aircraft as stopgaps

DC-10-30: the trijet for overseas

The DC-10-30 was the aircraft most closely associated with AOM. The trijet with the third engine in the vertical stabilizer offered enough range and capacity for routes like Paris–Réunion or Paris–Antilles. You recognize the long-haul -30 version by the additional center landing gear under the fuselage. The manufacturer was McDonnell Douglas.

AOM took over several DC-10s used, including one from the inventory of Air Afrique. After the end of AOM, the DC-10s stayed in the group: Air Lib still had eleven DC-10-30s in its fleet in early 2003. Don’t confuse the DC-10 with the outwardly similar but longer MD-11 with winglets – AOM did not fly that.

MD-83: the domestic workhorse

On short and medium-haul routes, AOM relied on the MD-83, a version of the MD-80 family with extra fuel for more range. The slender jets with the two tail-mounted engines and the T-tail were ubiquitous at Orly. Briefly, an MD-82 from Meridiana and an MD-87 from Transwede supplemented the fleet. You recognize the MD-87 by its much shorter fuselage.

One AOM MD-83 received an especially well-known special livery: the design goes back to a drawing by the later singer Alizée, who as a child had won a drawing contest held by the airline. Such designs are among the sought-after photos of old special liveries today.

A340: the late Airbus

In the Swissair era, Airbus A340-200s joined from 1999 and A340-300s from 2000. They replaced the DC-10 on individual long-haul routes and later went to Air Lib, which operated four A340s in early 2003. The -200 is the shorter of the two types; how to tell the A340 from the twin-engine A330 is shown in A330 or A340?. The manufacturer is Airbus.

Swissair, Air Liberté and the end as Air Lib

Part of the “Hunter strategy”

At the end of the 1990s, Swissair bought into numerous European airlines in order to build its own network without a large alliance – known as the “Hunter strategy”. In early 1999, Swissair came into AOM with almost half of the shares. AOM became part of the Swissair Group and took part in the Qualiflyer frequent flyer program, which Swissair ran with partners like Sabena and Crossair.

The economic situation did not improve regardless. High debt, a mixed fleet and overcapacity weighed on the airline. Swissair had meanwhile also bought Air Liberté and Air Littoral and tried to bring the French holdings together.

From AOM/Air Liberté to Air Lib

At the end of March 2001, the Swissair Group merged the flight operations of AOM and Air Liberté; from April the company appeared as AOM/Air Liberté. In May already came a restructuring plan with the cutting of about a third of the jobs, in June 2001 the bankruptcy proceedings. In July 2001, the Air France pilot Jean-Charles Corbet took over the company with his holding Holco for a symbolic euro. Swissair committed to financing the restructuring with 1.3 billion francs; 1,405 jobs were lost.

On September 22, 2001, the airline received the new name Air Lib. Shortly afterward, Swissair itself collapsed and could not fully meet its commitments; the French state stepped in with a loan. Air Lib still launched the low-cost brand Air Lib Express on domestic routes from Orly, but on February 13, 2003, the company stopped payments, and on February 17, 2003, the commercial court in Créteil ordered liquidation. About 3,200 employees lost their jobs. Corbet was convicted in Paris in 2007 for not having passed Swissair funds on to Air Lib in full.

You can read more about such collapses in the article Major airline bankruptcies in Europe.

How to recognize AOM

You can no longer meet AOM live, but you certainly can in photos from the 1990s. These features help with placing them:

A good path to a reliable match is the registration. AOM aircraft were registered in France and therefore carry an F- before the letter sequence, on the DC-10s for example F-GTDI. With the registration, you can follow an aircraft’s history in databases and see where it flew before and after. You will find tips for looking at old types under Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky, and on airline design changes in the article When airlines change their design.

Accidents and incidents

One serious accident is linked to an AOM aircraft but did not occur in its own flight operations. The DC-10-30 F-GTDI was leased to Cubana de Aviación when it landed in Guatemala City on December 21, 1999, as Cubana flight 1216. The aircraft touched down too far along the wet runway, braked too little and overran the end of the runway into a residential area. 16 people on board and two on the ground died. The investigation found inconsistencies in the spoiler position, the cause of which was not conclusively established.

AOM today: traces for spotters

The airline has vanished, its aircraft long since moved on or scrapped. For spotters, AOM remains a topic for archive and collection: old slides, timetables, boarding passes, models. If you travel in France, at Orly you can still see the terminals AOM once fought over. Before you photograph there or at other French airports, read the article on photographing at French airports.

The overseas routes AOM once served are flown today by others: Air France, Corsair, Air Caraïbes and regional companies. You practically no longer see the DC-10 in passenger service – old shots from the AOM era are all the more valuable.

Common mix-ups

• Equating AOM with Air Inter – both flew from Orly but were competitors; Air Inter belonged to the Air France group from 1990.
• Equating AOM with Air Lib – Air Lib was the successor company after the merger with Air Liberté, with its own name and image.
• Assigning the IATA code IW only to AOM – Air Lib Express also used IW.
• Mixing up the DC-10 and MD-11 – AOM flew only the DC-10, recognizable by the missing winglets and the shorter fuselage.
• Counting Cubana flight 1216 as an AOM accident – the aircraft belonged to the AOM fleet, but the flight was operated by Cubana.

Conclusion

In the 1990s, AOM French Airlines was the most important private challenger to Air France and Air Inter at Orly. Formed from Air Outre Mer and Minerve, it relied on DC-10-30s for the overseas territories and MD-83s domestically – a fleet that is itself history today. Without investing owners, pushed out of the west terminal and in the end bound to Swissair’s strategy, AOM merged into Air Liberté in 2001 and lived on as Air Lib only until 2003. For spotters, it remains an exciting chapter of French aviation that you can trace well through registrations and old photos.