Air France
Air France (Compagnie Nationale Air France) is a
subsidiary of Air France-KLM. Before the take-over of KLM, it was
essentially the national airline of France, employing 71,654 people (at
January 2005).
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The company, whose headquarters are at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport
near Paris (headquarters now used by Air France-KLM), transported 43.3
million passengers and earned 12.53 billion Euro between April 2001 and
March 2002. Air France's subsidiary, operates regional jet and turboprop
flights within Europe.
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Air France took over the Dutch company KLM in May 2004, resulting in the
creation of Air France-KLM. Air France-KLM is the largest airline
company in the world in terms of operating revenues, and the
third-largest in the world (largest in Europe) in terms of
passengers-kilometers.
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Air France-KLM is part of the SkyTeam Alliance with Delta Air Lines,
Korean Air, CSA Czech Airlines, Alitalia, Northwest Airlines, and
Continental Airlines. Both Air France and KLM continue to fly under
their distinct brand names, but this may change in the future.
The airline had extensive routes across Europe, but
also to French colonies in northern Africa and elsewhere. During World
War II, Air France moved its operations to Casablanca, Morocco; the
airline was featured prominently in the film Casablanca.
After the Second World War the company was nationalized and Societe
Nationale Air France was set up on 1 January 1946. Compagnie Nationale
Air France was created by a parliamentary act on June 16, 1948. The
government held 70% of the new company and in mid-2002 still held a 54%
stake in the airline. On August 4, 1948, Max Hymans was appointed
president of Air France. During his thirteen years at the helm, he
implemented a modernisation policy based on jet aircraft, specifically
the Sud Aviation Caravelle and the Boeing 707.
In 1949 the company was one of the founders of SITA. The airline used
the De Havilland Comet for a short while from 1953, but soon replaced it
with Vickers Viscounts. In 1959 the company started widespread use of
the elegant twin-jet Sud Aviation Caravelle. It graduated to the use of
Boeing aircraft, but as a national European carrier it became committed
to Airbus designs from 1974.
Air France Concorde at the National Air and Space Museum
In 1976, the airline started operating the unique Concorde SST
supersonic airliner on the Paris-Charles de Gaulle to New York route as
well as a number of other routes (those other routes were dropped in
1982). It flew the route Paris to New York City in 3 hours and 20
minutes, at about twice the speed of sound).
On 12 January 1990, the operations of all government owned airlies, Air
France, Air Inter, Air Charter and UTA, were merged into the Air France
Group. A new holding company Groupe Air France was set up by decree on
25 July 1994 and implemented on 1 September 1994. It had majority
shareholdings in Air France and Air Inter (renamed Air France Europe).
In 1997 Air France Europe was fully absorbed into Air France. On 10
February 1999 the French government partially privatised the airline on
the Paris stock exchange. It became a founder member of the Skyteam
Alliance in June 2000.
The five Air France Concordes were withdrawn from use on 31 May 2003
when all Concordes were simultaneously retired by Air France and British
Airways as a result of insufficient demand following the 2000 accident,
along with higher fuel and maintenance costs. Concorde F-BVFA was
transferred to the U.S. Air and Space museum in Washington DC, USA. F-BVFB
was given to a German museum, F-BTSD to the "Musée de l'Air et de
l'Espace" in Paris, while F-BVFC was returned to its place of
manufacture in Toulouse (France) at the Airbus Industrie factory.
On September 30, 2003, Air France and Netherlands-based KLM (Royal Dutch
Airlines), announced the merging of the two airlines, the new company to
be known as Air France-KLM. The merger became reality on May 5, 2004.
Former Air France shareholders own 81% of the new firm (44% owned by the
French government, 37% by private shareholders), while former KLM
shareholders hold the rest. The French government's share of Air France
was reduced from 54.4 per cent (of the former Air France) to 44 per cent
(of the current Air France-KLM), thus in effect privatizing Air France.
In December 2004 the French state sold 18.4% of its equity stake in the
Air France-KLM Group, reducing its stake to just under 20%.
Samsung
Samsung Group is one of the largest South Korean
business groupings. It started as an exports company in 1938 but soon
diversified. The Samsung Group, a former [Conglomerate (company)|conglomerates]]
("chaebol"), employs well over 400,000 employees worldwide and
manufactures cars, electronics, chemicals, aircraft, ships, merchant
trade, runs hotels, amusement parks, constructs skyscrapers, textiles,
food, etc in separate companies after the Asian financial crisis
reorganization. Suwon, Korea is also known as Samsung city.
Samsung Electronics was founded in 1969, the largest member of the
Samsung Group, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is one of the largest
electronics companies in the world. Founded in Daegu, South Korea, it
operates in around 58 countries and has over 208,000 workers. The
turnover in 2003 was about 101.7 billion USD. Samsung Electronics is
recognized as being one of the top 10 brands in the world.
At present, Samsung Electronics operates in 5 business areas, namely
Telecommunications (Mobile Handsets and Network), Digital and Home
Appliances (including washing machines, microwave ovens, refrigerators,
VHS and DVD players, etc), Digital Media, LCD, and Semiconductors.
Samsung (meaning "three stars" or "tristar" in Korean) was founded by
Lee Byungchul. Samsung Electronics is the flagship division of The
Samsung Group.
