[1] The founder was Gaston Gradis, president of the Nieuport-Astra airplane construction company and son-in-law of Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, who had founded the first French airline, the Compagnie générale transaérienne.

[2] The retired General Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, who had designed and built tanks during the war, was made president of the company.

[3] The purpose of the company was to "study, establish and exploit land and air communications between the various territories of the African continent, particularly between Algeria and Niger."

The company planned to provide land and air transport, including infrastructure and operations, for tourism and for topographic reconnaissance of the Mediterranean-Niger railroad project.

[2] Four Citroën cars with Kégresse tracks towed a Nieuport-Delage aircraft with folding wings covered by a huge white tarpaulin.

[6] A second exploratory expedition left Colomb-Béchar at midnight on 25 January 1924, headed by Gaston Gradis, with three large six-wheel Renault cars with double tires.

[7] A rival Citroën expedition had left a day before, and the press made great play of the competition, which Gradis thought obscured the important goal of establishing a trans-Saharan route.

[13] They then returned to Europe by boat, while the Estienne brothers raced back from Savé to Colomb Bechar in six days, setting a new record for long-distance speed in Africa.

To publicize the practicality of the crossing, in 1927 Georges traveled alone from Oran to Niamey in five days as part of an eleven-day journey from Paris to Fort-Lamy.

[14] The local French forces, who already had difficulty maintaining order in the desert, had to cope with an influx of tourists who were completely unfamiliar with the conditions, although the cost and duration of the trips kept numbers low.

The main route was Algiers – Mascara – Aïn Séfra – Colomb Béchar – Adrar – Gao – Niamey – Bobo Dioulasso – Bamako, with flights twice a month.

[20] After a series of accidents, in 1948 the airline returned the Ju 52 planes to the army and used a Bristol 170 and two Douglas DC-3 machines on loan from the Compagnie Air Transport.