Cameroon Airlines was founded in 1971 (it was operating as early as 1973) in an effort to create a national Cameroonian airline, as until then domestic and international flight operations at the airports in the country were mostly executed by multi-national Air Afrique.

Scheduled flights between Douala and Yaoundé were launched on 1 November of that year with an initial fleet of two Boeing 737-200 aircraft.

Over the years, Cameroon Airlines was plagued by financial difficulties, which came along with a poor safety and maintenance record.

On 16 September 2005, the airline was indefinitely banned by the French Civil Aviation Authority from operating its Paris route.

Cameroon Airlines had scaled down the domestic route network in a cost-saving measure, relying on the larger sub-Saharan cities as well as some European destinations:[6]