Union de Transports Aériens
The airline was a subsidiary of Compagnie Maritime des Chargeurs Réunis,[1] the French shipping line founded and controlled by the Fabre family, but was absorbed into Air France between 1990 and 1992.[nb 5] In addition, the airline had regional scheduled passenger traffic rights between Japan, New Caledonia and New Zealand, between South Africa and the French Réunion island in the Indian Ocean, as well as between Tahiti and the US West Coast.It therefore enabled UTA to launch scheduled services to new destinations within Air France's sphere of influence, in competition with that airline, for the first time.UTA's ability to secure traffic rights outside its traditional sphere of influence in competition with Air France was the result of a successful campaign it had mounted to lobby its government to enable it to grow faster, thereby becoming a more dynamic and more profitable business.[11][16] In 1988 French Transport Minister Michel Delebarre partially reversed the French government's relaxed policy on allocating traffic rights to the country's three main contemporary scheduled airlines when he decided to deny UTA the right to fly non-stop from Paris to Newark in direct competition with Air France.[11][17] The aim was to protect Air France's position as the country's dominant scheduled carrier by making UTA a less attractive takeover target for its foreign rivals in the event of a merger.The airline's small fleet size was conditioned by the nature of its operations, i.e. as a long-haul carrier serving most of its routes as multi-stop sectors at low frequencies of less than one flight per day.[24][25] In order to facilitate the smooth introduction of the DC-10 into its fleet, UTA joined the KSSU[nb 7] aircraft maintenance consortium, whose founding members were KLM, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and Swissair.[14][32] It was intended that the newly ordered A340s would replace the airline's ageing DC-10s as well as facilitate its future expansion into new long-haul markets from the early 1990s onwards.In addition, UTA's then subsidiary company Air Polynésie,[1] based at Faa'a International Airport, Tahiti, had a fleet of three Fairchild F-27A Friendships, one Britten-Norman Islander, one de Havilland Canada Twin Otter series 200, and one de Havilland Twin Otter series 300.
GuineanUnion des Transports Africains de GuinéeAir FranceParis–Charles de GaulleParis–Le BourgetFrequent-flyer programChargeurs8th arrondissementFranceUnion Aéromaritime de TransportTransports Aériens IntercontinentauxInternational Air Transport AssociationCompagnie Maritime des Chargeurs Réunisshipping lineDouglas DC-8Sydney Airportaircrewjet aircraftpiston engineliverySouthern AfricaMonroviaFreetownAfricanrevenueAbidjanmetropolitan FranceCentral AfricaanglophoneNigeriaLiberiaSierra LeoneMalawiZambiaZimbabweAngolaMozambiquelusophoneSouth AfricaNorth AfricaMiddle EastBahrainSouth AsiaSoutheast AsiaIndonesiaMalaysiaSingaporeNew CaledoniaAustraliaNew ZealandTahitiLos AngelesRéunionIndian OceanUS West CoastBritishCanadianHong Kongflag carriertransatlanticBoeing 747-400French governmentair transportSan FranciscoPapeeteprofitablebusinessindustrial disputeunionsAir EuropemergermonopolyMinervecharter airlineMichel DelebarreNewarkBritish AirwaysLufthansaliberalisedGroupe Air Franceeconomies of scaleliberalisationEuropean UnioncorporatePuteauxGreater ParisBoeing 747Air AfriqueParis-Charles de GaulleBeech 18Douglas DC-4Douglas DC-6Douglas DC-7Fokker F27 FriendshipBoeing 737-200Douglas DC-8-30/50 seriesMcDonnell Douglas DC-10-30Boeing 747-200Boeing 747-300turbojetsturbofanconsortiumScandinavian AirlinesSwissairBoeingproduction lineBoeing 747-200s747-200 SUDs747-200sAirbusAirbus A340-300widebodied767-300ERsDouglas DC-8-30/50Sud Aviation CaravelleAerospacelines Super GuppyFokker F-27 FriendshipFokker FriendshipsBoeing 737La Tontouta AirportPacificFaa'a International AirportFairchild F-27A FriendshipsBritten-Norman Islanderde Havilland Canada Twin Otter series 200Boeing 747-200B Combi