in full Compagnie Internationale Air France
French passenger and cargo airline with more than 200 destinations in some 80 countries.
It introduced supersonic Concorde service in 1976, but financial loss led the company to cease its Concorde operations in 2003. The French government began privatizing the former national airline in July 2002. In 2004 Air France acquired the Dutch airline KLM to create Air France-KLM, one of the largest air carriers in the world. The two airlines, however, continued to operate as separate companies, retaining their own hubs, flights, and logos.