It was established as the official transnational carrier for francophone West and Central Africa, because many of these countries did not have the capability to create and maintain a national airline,[4] and had its headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

[5] The carrier was a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as well as the French Union's smaller IATA-like ATAF.

Mismanagement, corruption, and the downturn in the aviation industry after the 11 September 2001 attacks led the airline to a crisis that ended with its liquidation in early 2002.

Eleven heads of state that attended to the next conference, held at Brazzaville in December the same year, agreed to form the company.

Gambia, Ghana and Mali decided to stay away from the project, as they had plans for setting up their own airlines with aid from the Soviets.

[13] The Treaty of Yaoundé, signed on 28 March 1961 (1961-03-28),[13] founded Air Afrique as a joint venture between Air France and UAT, each of which had a 17% holding,[11][12]: 933 [14] while the eleven newly independent former French colonies in West Africa, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Mauritania, Niger, the Republic of the Congo and Senegal,[15] contributed with the remaining 66% of the capital,[11] estimated in 500 millions of CFA francs.

[12]: 933 [18] On 15 October 1961 (1961-10-15), an Air France Lockheed Constellation that flew the Paris–Port Etienne–Dakar–Abidjan–Cotonou–Douala route on behalf of the company inaugurated the long-haul operations.

[31] In April 1964 (1964-04), Air Afrique was authorised to connect several African countries with the United States and in November, the Paris–Abidjan run started calling at Geneva on a weekly basis.

By then, the route network included 22 African countries, along with Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nice and Paris in France, Geneva in Switzerland and New York in the United States (in agreement with Pan Am).

[31] In August the same year, Central African Republic's president Jean Bedel Bokassa stated that his country would leave the consortium to form their own airline, Air Centrafrique; the withdrawal plans were shelved.

Shortly afterwards, Cameroon's president Ahmadou Ahidjo was discontented with the airline both for the lack of Cameroonians in top management positions and for the location of the head office in Abidjan, as Douala was the city with the highest traffic among the points served by the carrier in Africa at the time, and Ahidjo believed the head office should be located there.

[39] The move angered Chadian president François Tombalbaye, who also threatened to withdraw support to the multinational enterprise in 1972, something that finally did not occur.

[44] In July 1980 (1980-07) the airline had 5,100 employees and a fleet that comprised a pair of Caravelle 10Rs, three DC-8-50s, two DC-8-50Fs, one DC-8-63 and three DC-10-30s that served 22 African nations and intercontinental routes to Bordeaux, Geneva, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, New York, Paris, Rome and Zürich.

[47] Largely due to the acquisition of new aircraft or wet-leasing planes from other companies, at early 1985 the carrier had a total debt of US$250 million, with approximately a fifth of this amount being unpaid contributions from the member states.

[50] The consortium members (Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo)[51] sought assistance from France.

The new management lobbied to restrict foreign airlines to serve the member countries in order for Air Afrique to take advantage of this situation.

He claimed he failed to restructure the company due to the excessive interference from the governments that owned it, whereas employees accused him of worsening Air Afrique's financial position by acquiring four Airbus A310-300s.

From all the member states, only Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Senegal provided their quota from a total of 20 billion CFA francs that were necessary to alleviate the financial difficulties of the carrier at that time.

[50] During Tirvangandum's mandate, Air Afrique entered a partnership with the World Bank,[67] which aimed operations to be restricted to Africa.

[62] By that time, eleven countries on the CFA zone were the major shareholders of the airline (70.4%), African and French investors had a participation of 13.7%, Air France had a 12.2% stake, and DHL owned 3.2%.

At the same time, the route network included Abidjan, Abu Dhabi, Accra, Athens, Bamako, Bangui, Banjul, Beirut, Bissau, Bordeaux, Brazzaville, Casablanca, Conakry, Cotonou, Dakar, Douala, Geneva, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Lagos, Libreville, Lisbon, Lomé, Malabo, Marseille, Monrovia, Nairobi, N'Djamena, New York, Niamey, Nouakchott, Ouagadougou, Paris, Pointe-Noire, Rome and Zürich.

[71] The eleven African Governments reduced its participation in Air Afrique to 22%, 5% belonged to the employees, and the remaining stake were owned by other investors.

[76] At its heyday, the airline operated an extensive network within Central and Western Africa, as well as flights to Europe and North America.

The scheduled network at the time of closure comprised 22 destinations: Abidjan, Athens, Bamako, Bangui, Banjul, Brazzaville, Casablanca, Cotonou, Dakar, Douala, Geneva, Libreville, Lomé, Marseille, N'Djamena, New York, Niamey, Nouakchott, Ouagadougou, Paris, Pointe-Noire, and Rome.

[2]: 46 The airline historically operated a wide variety of aircraft:[5][77][78] According to Aviation Safety Network, Air Afrique experienced seven accidents/incidents; only two of them led to fatalities.