AIR FRANCE : 70 YEARS OF INNOVATION, ELEGANCE AND STYLE

France has a rich flight history, from its deep involvement with hot air and early heavier-than-air machines to Air France's role over the last 70 years as both a flourishing private-sector enterprise and an instrument of government policy. Even in its infancy, Air France paid heed to human comforts: Its planes had baggage racks, individual passenger fans, heating systems and stewards. By 1938, Air France was carrying more than 100,000 passengers yearly-twice as many as in 1933-to Europe, North Africa, the Middle and Far Ear and South America. While World War II disrupted commercial aviation all over Europe, including in France, Air France's postwar revival was fast and efficient, and as the jet age fueled passenger demand for air travel, Air France began to outgrow its Paris base at Orly. In 1974, the airline moved to the brand-new, state-of-the-art Charles de Gaulle Airport at Roissy northeast of the capital. When the aviation world was shaken by US deregulation in 1978, which forced all airlines-- including state-owned ones--to reevaluate their business methods, Air France started looking to marketing, internal efficiencies and other measures to boost revenues and trim costs-good preparation for the arrival, starting in 1987, of European airline liberalization. In the past few years, Air France has been profitable, even as many airlines worldwide teetered on the brink of financial crisis. Today, Air France carries more than 43 million passengers annually with a fleet of 245 aircraft; its route network encompasses 196 cities in 85 countries.