The airline was founded by Cédric Pastour in August 1995 as Société de Transport Aérien Régional and was trading under Star Europe.

[7] Only one formal bid was received by the deadline of 4 October – from Gérard Houa, former minority shareholder of Aigle Azur, who proposed to take over two of XL Airways' four planes and 48% of its 570 staff – but the court deemed that the guarantees were insufficient and ordered the liquidation of the company.

[9] XL Airways's head office is in the Bâtiment Mars in Continental Square II on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport and in the commune of Tremblay-en-France.

Through XL Cloud, a selection of movies, TV shows, documentaries, and other digital media were available for free, as well as a live inflight map and instant messaging between passengers, however Internet access was not provided through the portal.

[24] In addition, paid rental of virtual reality headsets equipped with noise-cancelling headphones and a selection of movies in 2D and 3D was also available for the duration of the flight.