Union de Transports Aériens (; abbreviated as UTA and sometimes known as UTA French Airlines) was a private independent airline in France that operated from 1963 until it merged with Air France in 1992. UTA was formed by the merger of Union Aéromaritime de Transport (UAT) and Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux (TAI). UTA was the largest wholly privately owned, independentindependent from government-owned corporations airline in France. It was also the second-largest international, as well as the second principal intercontinental, French airlineafter Air France and a full member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) since its inception.
The airline was a subsidiary of Compagnie Maritime des Chargeurs Réunis,France's independent flag carrier Flight International 24 June 1971 page 945 the French shipping line founded and controlled by the Fabre family, but was absorbed into Air France between 1990 and 1992.UTA take-over makes Air France Europe's second-favourite airline Flight International 24 January 1990 page 10News in brief - UTA finance Flight International 30 May 1990 page 13Air France plans UTA break down Flight International 2 October 1991 page 4
History
The decision to merge Union Aéromaritime de Transport (UAT)based at Paris Le Bourget with Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux (TAI)based at Paris Orly was taken in September 1961, building on a commercial relationship between the two airlines that had begun in the early 1950s. UTA, the new company that succeeded UAT and TAI, came into being on 1 October 1963 with a capital of £2.6mn.
Formation and early years At the time of its inception, UTA employed 4,900 personnel (including 630 aircrew)Airliner Classics (1960s: French Long-Haul Merger), Key Publishing Stamford, UK, November 2011, p. 9 and inherited a fleet of 35 aircraft from its predecessors, comprising six jet aircraft and 29 piston engine airliners. These were progressively repainted in UTA's new livery, a combination of UAT's blue and TAI's green colour schemes. The inherited network spanned five continents. Most of these were intercontinental, long-haul routes connecting France with West and Southern Africa. On 1 November 1963 UTA introduced DC-8 jets on its flights from Paris to Lagos, Accra, Monrovia and Freetown. UTA's creation coincided with a new French aviation policy that established exclusive spheres of influence for UTA and Air France. Air France withdrew from UTA's sphere of influence but UTA continued serving the African routes it inherited from UAT in association with Air Afrique. This included UTA taking the place of UAT in the joint revenue sharing agreement with Air Afrique. In addition, UTA continued providing commercial and technical assistance to Air Afrique on the same terms as UAT.Aeroplane – World Transport Affairs: Agreement reached on U.A.T.-T.A.I. merger, Vol. 103, No. 2637, p. 11, Temple Press, London, 3 May 1962Air Commerce ... Union de Transports Aériens, Flight International, 17 October 1963, p. 636Aeroplane – Airline of the Month: UTA – Five-star independent, Vol. 109, No. 2798, p. 6, Temple Press, London, 3 June 1965
UTA had the largest African network of any European airline, flying to up to 25 destinations. Its busiest scheduled route was Paris—Abidjan, served daily in both directions. UTA primarily operated long-haul intercontinental scheduled services linking metropolitan France with most countries in francophone West and Central Africa, a number of countries in anglophone West and Southern Africa (including Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe), as well as Angola and Mozambique in lusophone Southern Africa, South Africa, Libya in North Africa, Malta, the Middle East (Bahrain and Oman), South Asia (Sri Lanka), Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore), New Caledonia, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti and Los Angeles.via the Asia-Pacific route only In addition, the airline had regional scheduled passenger traffic rights between Japan, New Caledonia and New Zealand, between South Africa and the French Réunion island in the Indian Ocean, as well as between Tahiti and the US West Coast.
Through most of its existence UTA was one of only four wholly privately owned, independent airlines outside of the US with a major, long-haul scheduled presence.British United Airways (BUA)/British Caledonian (BCal), Canadian Pacific Air Lines (CP Air)/Canadian Airlines International and Cathay Pacific were the other three contemporary non-US independent, long-haul scheduled carriers Unlike its British, Canadian and Hong Kong independent contemporaries, for most of its existence UTA did not have a network of short-/medium-haul scheduled routes nor did it compete on any of its scheduled routes with Air France, the primary French flag carrier at the time. This made it an almost exclusively long-haul, intercontinental scheduled airline. It also made its scheduled route network complementary to Air France and Air Inter. (UTA and Air France used to co-ordinate their schedules at Los Angeles to enable passengers to connect between Air France's transatlantic and UTA's transpacific services.)
1980s and merger with Air France
In 1986 the French government unexpectedly decided to relax its policy of neatly dividing traffic rights for scheduled air services between Air France, Air Inter and UTA, without any route overlaps between them. The regulatory framework governing France's air transport sector at the time dated from 1963. It had prevented the country's three main scheduled airlines from operating outside their respective spheres of influence and competing with each other. The French government's decision to adopt a less rigid interpretation of its policy gradually reversed both of these rules. It therefore enabled UTA to launch scheduled services to new destinations within Air France's sphere of influence, in competition with that airline, for the first time. Paris — San Francisco became the first route UTA served in competition with Air France non-stop from Paris. (Air France responded by extending some of its non-stop Paris – Los Angeles services to Papeete, Tahiti, which competed with UTA on the Los Angeles – Papeete sector.) UTA's ability to secure traffic rights outside its traditional sphere of influence in competition with Air France was the result of a successful campaign it had mounted to lobby its government to enable it to grow faster, thereby becoming a more dynamic and more profitable business. During that time, UTA also planned to launch a short-haul European feeder network,AF and UTA battle for Air Inter, Air Transport, Flight International, 31 October 1987, p. 7Air France shapes up for hotter markets, Air Transport, Flight International, 30 January 1988, p. 6 which was to be operated by its Aéromaritime subsidiary. In the event, these plans were scuppered by a long-running, bitter industrial dispute between UTA's management and the unions representing the majority of pilots at Aéromaritime as well as at UTA itself. The dispute was about the introduction of new, lower pay scales at Aéromaritime to prepare it for the competition it was likely to face at the hands of Europe's new breed of much lower cost, aggressively expanding independent airlines, as exemplified by UK-based Air Europe at that time. It lasted for the better part of a year from the end of 1988 until October 1989 and resulted in the grounding of both Aéromaritime and UTA during that period. UTA's plans for a European feeder network were also overtaken by its subsequent merger with Air France.Answers.com (Business and Finance) — Chargeurs InternationalUTA aims at Newark, Air Transport, Flight International, 20 June 1987, p. 26UTA struggles for expansion, Flight International, 21 May 1988, p. 20UTA denied Paris/Newark direct route, Flight International, 27 May 1989, p. 17
1986 was also the year UTA lost its monopoly on the Paris—Papeete route to Minerve, France's leading contemporary charter airline.Minerve breaks UTA monopoly to Tahiti, Air Transport, Flight International, 7 June 1986, p. 8
In 1988 French Transport Minister Michel Delebarre partially reversed the French government's relaxed policy on allocating traffic rights to the country's three main contemporary scheduled airlines when he decided to deny UTA the right to fly non-stop from Paris to Newark in direct competition with Air France.UTA take-over makes Air France Europe's second-favourite airline, Operations: Air Transport, Flight International, 24-30 January 1990, p. 11 The aim was to protect Air France's position as the country's dominant scheduled carrier by making UTA a less attractive takeover target for its foreign rivals in the event of a merger. The French government feared that Air France's smaller size relative to British Airways, Lufthansa and the US giants as well as its fragmented long-haul network put it at a commercial disadvantage in a liberalised air transport market. Air France, Air Inter and UTA were therefore encouraged to co-operate rather than compete with each other.French shakeup denies UTA new routes, Flight International, 10 December 1988, p. 13
On 12 January 1990 UTA, along with Air Inter and Air France itself, became part of an enlarged Air France group, which in turn became a wholly owned subsidiary of Groupe Air France.The New York Times, 13 January 1990, Business - Air France Buying Into 2 Carriers On 18 December 1992, UTA ceased to exist as a legal entity within Groupe Air France.Air France (Airline, France)
Air France's acquisition of UTA and Air Inter was part of an early 1990s French government plan to create a unified national carrier with the economies of scale and global reach to counter threats resulting from the liberalisation of the air transport market in the European Union (EU).FT.com/Business Life, The Monday Interview, 30 September 2007 — Pilot who found the right trajectory
Corporate affairs and identity
Head office UTA's corporate head office was located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.World Airline Directory, Flight International, 29 March 1986, p. 135 "Head Office: 3 Boulevard Malesherbes, F-75008, Paris, France." The head office of the Compagnie Aéromaritime d'Affrètement subsidiary was in Puteaux in Greater Paris."World Airline Directory." Flight International. 28 April 1979. p. 1366. "Head Office: 50 Rue Arago, Puteaux 92, France."
Foreign offices In the UK, the airline operated a ticket-office for prospective passengers in 177 Piccadilly, French Railways House, in London from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, which also housed Maison de La France, the French Government Tourist Office, until its closure in the mid-2000s.
Fleet
UTA and its subsidiaries operated the following aircraft types and sub-types throughout its 29-year existence: Beech 18 Douglas DC-4 Douglas DC-6 Douglas DC-7 Fokker F27 Sud-Aviation SE-210 Caravelle 10R Boeing 737-200 Douglas DC-8-30/50 series Douglas DC-8-62/63 "Super Sixty" series McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 Boeing 747-200 Boeing 747-300 Boeing 747-400
Throughout most of this time, UTA's "mainline" fleet strength stood at about ten to twelve aircraft only. The airline's small fleet size was conditioned by the nature of its operations, i.e. as a long-haul carrier serving most of its routes as multi-stop sectors at low frequencies of less than one flight per day.
1965 marked the beginning of a re-engining programme that saw UTA's fleet of six DC-8 series 30 turbojets gradually converted to series 50 turbofan standard.Aeroplane – Airline of the Month: UTA – Five-star independent, Vol. 109, No. 2798, p. 4, Temple Press, London, 3 June 1965A DC-8F has been bought by UTA, ...., Air Transport ..., Flight International, 1 April 1965, p. 478