Chalair Aviation

Among the Airbus jets of Air France, Transavia and Vueling, a much smaller aircraft regularly stands out at Paris-Orly: a turboprop with “Chalair” titles. Chalair Aviation has been flying in France for decades, yet hardly anyone outside the country knows it. For spotters, that is exactly the appeal – a small fleet, unusual types and routes that exist only in France. This page shows you what is behind Chalair and how to identify its aircraft with confidence.

Chalair Aviation at a glance

Chalair Aviation is a French regional airline based at Caen-Carpiquet Airport in Normandy. It was founded by Philippe Lebaron in 1986, initially as an air taxi company. Lebaron had previously been a pilot at Brit Air, one of the defining regional airlines of France. From 1997, Chalair expanded its scheduled service, at the time including between Cherbourg and Paris-Orly.

In 2003, Alain Battisti took over the company, and he remains its owner to this day. Under him, the small on-demand operator gradually became a scheduled airline with routes of its own. In 2004, the first Beechcraft 1900 joined the fleet, followed later by ATR turboprops for routes with more demand.

Chalair is not part of a large group and does not belong to any alliance. Even so, the airline is closely interwoven with the French network: there is a codeshare with Air France, Chalair is a partner of the Flying Blue frequent flyer program of the Air France-KLM Group, and at Orly the airline offers connections to Air Caraïbes and French bee. Chalair also holds the IATA IOSA certification, an international audit for safe flight operations.

Codes and identifiers

• IATA code CE: appears in the flight number – on the departure board at Orly, on the ticket and in schedules.
• ICAO code CLG: shows up in the air traffic control flight plan and on ADS-B trackers.
• Registration F-: Chalair aircraft are registered in France and carry the prefix F- on the tail.

Because Chalair flies codeshare with Air France, one and the same flight can be sold under a CE and an AF flight number. Who actually operates it, the tracker shows you via the ICAO code. The article Callsign or flight number? explains the difference between flight number and callsign in detail.

The business model: routes on public contract

Chalair lives to a large extent on routes that are put out to tender in France as services under a public service obligation. The principle: the state, region, département and local authorities want to link a remote city to Paris by air. They set frequencies, aircraft size and times, put the route out to tender and share in the costs. The airline that wins the contract then usually flies for four years.

For Chalair, that means predictable traffic on routes that large airlines have withdrawn from. In June 2023, for example, Chalair took over the connections from Aurillac and from Castres to Paris-Orly after Air France gave up the routes. Until then, an Embraer ERJ 145 had been flying to Castres on behalf of Air France, operated by Amelia. In September 2024, Chalair then stepped in on a temporary basis on the Brive–Orly route and has been officially appointed operator there for four years since October 27, 2024.

Route	Takeover	Aircraft per Chalair or tender	Frequency
Aurillac – Paris-Orly	June 1, 2023, four-year contract	ATR 42-500 (48 seats)	per Chalair, two round trips on weekdays, one on Sundays
Castres-Mazamet – Paris-Orly	June 1, 2023, four-year contract	ATR 42-500	around 11 flights per week
Brive – Paris-Orly	Interim operation from September 16, 2024, contract from October 27, 2024 for four years	ATR 72 (70 seats)	two round trips on weekdays, one on Sundays

The table shows the starting situation when the contracts began and the information on the Chalair website. Which aircraft is used on a particular day can differ – for example during maintenance or shortages. In autumn 2026, the Chalair website puts these three routes from Orly front and center; for Castres, the airline states that the flights have been extended until the end of May 2027.

The fleet: ATR and Beechcraft

Chalair flies turboprops only. On its own fleet page, the airline lists ten aircraft with 18 to 70 seats and a range of up to 1,500 kilometers, spread across three types. Chalair doesn’t say there how many of each type are active, and the figures in fleet lists differ from one another. So here are just the types with their role:

Type	Seats (approx.)	Role at Chalair	Spotter tip
ATR 42-500	48	Backbone on Aurillac and Castres	Short fuselage, stubby proportions
ATR 72-500	70	Largest type, used on Brive–Orly	Much longer fuselage, more windows
Beechcraft 1900D	19	Smaller routes, charter and backup	Smallest type, tall cabin, T-tail

The manufacturer of the ATR types is the French-Italian company ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse. The Beechcraft 1900D comes from the Beechcraft program, which today belongs to Textron Aviation. According to the available information, Chalair does not operate the newer ATR 42-600 with its glass cockpit – the fleet consists of the previous-generation -500.

ATR 42 or ATR 72? How to tell them apart

At Chalair you see both ATR sizes in a similar paint scheme. From a long distance or shooting into the sun, they look alike: high wing, two turboprops under the wing, T-tail. The differences are in the details.

The surest clue is length relative to wingspan: the ATR 72 is long and stretched, the ATR 42 looks almost compact. If you count the windows behind the wing root in a photo, you usually have the answer right away. A detailed guide to all common types is in the article How to tell turboprops apart.

The Beechcraft 1900D, by contrast, is in a league of its own: a 19-seater, only slightly longer than a large business turboprop. Typical of the D version is the raised cabin, where passengers can stand upright, plus winglets and small extra fins on the tail. Once you’ve seen it, the only thing you might confuse it with is the Beechcraft King Air 200 – but that one is noticeably shorter, has fewer windows and a lower cabin.

How to recognize Chalair

Chalair aircraft carry the airline’s titles on the fuselage. Because the fleet is small and some aircraft come from the leasing market, the look of individual aircraft can differ from one another. So don’t rely on the paint alone, and always take a photo where the registration is legible. The F- on the tail shows the French registration, and the following four letters identify the individual aircraft. How registrations are structured is explained in Understanding aircraft registrations.

A second clue is the surroundings. At large airports, small turboprops often park at remote stands, where passengers board by bus and stairs. So you may well spot Chalair at Orly among buses and apron vehicles.

History: from air taxi to scheduled airline

The history of Chalair is closely tied to French regional aviation. A few milestones at a glance:

• 1986: Philippe Lebaron founds Chalair as an air taxi and on-demand flight company in Normandy.
• 1997: Expansion of scheduled service, including Le Mans–Eindhoven and Cherbourg–Paris-Orly; the company has operated as Chalair Aviation since then.
• 1998 to 2001: The regional airline Brit Air holds a stake in Chalair for a time.
• 2003: Alain Battisti takes over the company, initially with corporate shuttles in small King Airs.
• 2004: With the first Beechcraft 1900, the build-up into a regional scheduled airline begins.
• 2011 to 2014: Chalair flies routes from Orly on behalf of the then regional airline Airlinair.
• 2016: After the collapse of VLM Airlines, Chalair takes over the Antwerp–Hamburg route.
• 2019: Chalair takes over Agen–Orly from HOP!.
• 2020: In February, a codeshare with Air France is agreed, and from mid-March flight operations are suspended due to the pandemic until June.
• 2023 and 2024: Takeover of the routes Aurillac–Orly, Castres–Orly and Brive–Orly.

Many earlier routes, such as from Bordeaux, Limoges, Lyon, Quimper or Agen, are no longer part of the offering. Seasonally, Chalair also flew to Corsica, Nice or Kerry in Ireland for a time. For spotters, that means old spotter reports about Chalair sightings at particular airports are often no longer current.

Spotting Chalair: Orly and the regional airports

The most reliable place is Paris-Orly Airport. All current Chalair routes converge here. Because the publicly tendered routes are designed around connections at the edges of the day, so that business travelers can get to Paris in the morning and back in the evening, you typically meet the turboprops in the early morning hours and in the evening. Midday, the chances are lower.

At the regional airports of Aurillac, Brive and Castres-Mazamet, Chalair is often the only scheduled carrier. That is relaxing: little traffic, manageable distances and plenty of time per movement. General tips for places like these are in the guide Spotting at regional airports. Before you take out your camera in France, also read Photography at French airports – the rules differ from Germany in the details.

For turboprop photos, remember: a shutter speed that is too fast freezes the propellers and the aircraft looks like it is gliding. How to get the blades nicely blurred is covered in Photographing propellers. For an overview of similar airlines across Europe, see the article Regional airlines in Europe.

Common mix-ups

• Mistaking Chalair for an Air France subsidiary – Chalair is independent, and the codeshare just makes the flights bookable under an AF number.
• Confusing the ATR 42 and ATR 72 – fuselage length and the number of windows behind the wing decide it.
• Logging the Beechcraft 1900D as a King Air – the 1900D is longer, has more windows and a taller cabin.
• Confusing the CE flight number and CLG – CE is on the departure board, CLG is the ICAO code on the tracker.
• Relying on old route lists – the network depends on time-limited tenders and changes regularly.

Conclusion

Chalair Aviation is the opposite of a mass-market airline: few turboprops, few routes, but a piece of French regional aviation that is otherwise hardly visible anymore. If you are at Orly at the right time or make a detour to one of the small airports in the Massif Central or in Occitania, an ATR or even a Beechcraft 1900D gives you a subject that is missing from many collections.