Air France Logo PNG
The Air France logo belongs to one of the world’s oldest national airlines. It emphasizes the brand’s leadership and reliability. The color palette evokes comfort, flight, and French style, reminiscent of the sky.
Air France was formed on October 7, 1933, through the merger of Air Orient, Air Union, Compagnie Générale Aéropostale, CIDNA, and SGTA. The move, backed by the French government, aimed to create a national carrier capable of competing internationally. Early operations focused on Europe and former French territories, using aircraft such as the Blériot 155 and the Dewoitine D.338.
Flights expanded in 1935 with routes from Paris to London. During World War II, operations stopped, then resumed in 1944 after France’s liberation. In 1945, the airline introduced the Douglas DC-4 for transatlantic service, followed by routes to South America, the French West Indies, and New York in 1946.
In the 1950s, the network reached South Africa, Japan, and Hong Kong. The fleet shifted to jet aircraft, including Boeing 707 and Sud Aviation Caravelle. In the 1960s, Boeing 727 and 747 entered service, while routes extended to China and the Soviet Union.
Rising fuel costs in the 1970s led to financial strain, and by 1976, the state controlled 98 percent of shares. Expansion continued in the 1980s with Airbus A300 and A310. In the 1990s, deregulation and low-cost carriers increased pressure, though the airline joined SkyTeam alongside Korean Air, Delta Air Lines, and Aeroméxico.
Fleet renewal in the 2000s included Airbus A318, A319, A320, and A321, as well as Boeing 777 and A330, while Transavia France strengthened the low-cost segment. In 2004, the Air France-KLM Group was created through the merger with KLM, expanding its network.
In the 2010s, new aircraft such as Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 entered service. The airline updated its identity in 2011 and marked its 80th anniversary in 2014. Airbus A380 operations began in 2015, followed by a gradual retirement starting in 2018. In 2021, operations continued under strict pandemic safety measures.
Meaning and History
The emblem features Hippocampus, a mythological creature resembling a winged horse with a fish’s tail. Legend has it that it is the fastest animal, which the ancient gods harnessed to their chariots. The Nereids also rode it. Air France chose it as an embodiment of maximum speed for its logo.
What is Air France?
It is the world’s oldest national airline, having operated since 1933. It operates over 300 planes and serves around 50 million passengers annually, flying to 320 cities in 116 countries. Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports are its main hubs. The company’s headquarters are in Tremblay-en-France. It is one of the world’s oldest airlines and a member of the SkyTeam alliance. It is part of the European holding company Air France-KLM; it was France’s main airline before the merger.
1933 – 1958
For several decades, Air France was represented by a logo featuring an unusual symbol, a pegasus. The logo appeared in 1933. Inside a circle outlined in dark blue was the figure of a winged horse standing on its hind legs and lifting a front leg. Instead of the familiar flowing tail, the pegasus had a fish tail, giving the image an unconventional character.
The creature’s wings were drawn as if streams of air radiated from them, in smooth, broad lines. The mane was straight and composed of several vertical segments, emphasizing the silhouette. Beneath the horse’s hooves was a stylized turbine, a symbol that highlighted the company’s aviation focus.
The choice of the pegasus was connected to the blend of the romance of flight and the technological progress of aviation at that time. The symbol evoked ancient legends and associations with the sky and flight, while the turbine below suggested modernity and advanced engineering.
During this period, Air France established a reputation as an airline capable of uniting tradition and modernity within a single mark. The pegasus conveyed the idea of flight supported by reliable technology, combining classical symbolism with a reference to the technical nature of air transport.
1958 – 1975
In 1958, Air France introduced a new logo designed by Roger Excoffon, who had recently been appointed the airline’s art director. The concise AIR FRANCE wordmark in bright blue uppercase letters appeared two years after Excoffon’s appointment.
The typeface used, Antique Olive Nord, designed by Excoffon himself, features heavy forms and enlarged proportions. The characters are set with minimal spacing, forming a solid line of text. The density of the letters evokes associations with an industrial style.
The full version of the typeface, initially named Nord, was refined and released as a separate type family the following year. In 1964, the font received its final name, Antique Olive Nord, by which it became widely known.
The era of Excoffon’s logo proved to be defining for Air France. For decades, it established an image that combined solidity and reliability with visual simplicity and modernity, fitting a time when air travel was becoming mass market and widely accessible.
1975 – 1990
In the mid 1970s, Air France took a step toward modernity by introducing a logo that became a symbol of an entire era. In November 1975, it first appeared on the fuselages of Concorde aircraft, although regular service was still a month away. The new symbol officially appeared in advertising on December 12 of the same year, marking the start of scheduled supersonic flights.
The main feature of the mark was five slanted stripes forming a shape similar to a parallelogram. They are directed upward and to the right. The first and last stripes are the widest. The first stripe is blue, while the last stripe is bright red. Between them are three narrower blue stripes that gradually decrease in width.
The color scheme remained unchanged, the classic triad of blue, white, and red referencing the French flag. Below the symbol, the name AIR FRANCE appeared in uppercase letters using the sans-serif Antique Olive Nord typeface. The lettering retained its familiar forms, but the color shifted to a darker shade of blue, harmoniously completing the company’s image.
The introduction of the logo coincided with the start of commercial Concorde operations. This event set a new standard for air travel. The supersonic airplane and the modern Air France symbol became a unified expression of technological progress and the national carrier’s ambitions.
1990 – 1998
At the beginning of the 1990s, Air France introduced an updated logo, retaining the brand’s previous elements while reorganizing them. In the new design, the AIR FRANCE name was raised above all other elements, emphasizing its importance within the mark’s structure. Beneath it runs a thin black line separating the text from the company symbol.
Below the line is the company symbol made up of five stripes, four blue and one red. The stripes are parallel and slanted to the right. The proportions of the mark remained unchanged, with the two outer stripes matching in width and the three central ones narrowing, creating a sense of motion.
The logo’s color scheme continued to be built around the French national flag. The classic combination of blue, white, and red is complemented by the black line, which adds contrast and sharpens the composition.
1998 – 2009
In 1998, the airline updated the logo style once again, changing the proportions of the elements and removing the dividing line. The diagonal stripe symbol widened and shortened, transforming from lines into a compact shape composed of five parallelograms. The stripes retained their original colors.
The Air France wordmark is positioned above the symbol and uses the same typeface, but the letters now appear more vertically compressed and visually wider. With the black line gone, emphasis shifted to the overall composition’s density and compactness.
2009 – 2016
In February 2009, Air France unveiled a new logo created by Brandimage. Its visual style became more restrained, and the elements received finer contours. The AIRFRANCE wordmark is now rendered as a single word in large uppercase letters in a deep, dark blue. The typeface is strict and clean, sans serif, retaining the general traits of Antique Olive Nord, though the letters became more refined and elongated. In character, the lettering also resembles typefaces such as Neo Sans or Frutiger.
The new brand symbol is a red shape positioned to the right of the text. It is a slanted parallelogram stretched diagonally upward and to the right, associated with an aircraft tail or an abstract flag. Visually, the shape is slightly curved, with the lower corner gently bent inward. The symbol’s color features a smooth gradient from a lighter red at the top to a deeper red at the bottom. Although the symbol itself remains two-dimensional, the color transition creates a sense of volume.
Abandoning the previous multi-element symbol in favor of a single shape made the Air France logo more modern. The style became lighter, the symbol more compact, and the colors deeper.
2016 – today
In 2016, Air France updated its logo, which became a familiar mark for passengers who encountered the company’s first Boeing 787-9. The AIRFRANCE lettering remained unchanged. It is a strict, dark-blue sans-serif typeface, horizontally elongated and tapering toward the ends. The wordmark remains set as a single word.
The main difference in the new version is the red symbol next to the text. The parallelogram shape retained its overall geometry, with a curved lower edge and a rightward slant, but its fill changed. Instead of the previous gradient, it now features a solid bright red fill.
Air France managed to preserve the brand’s core elements while adapting the symbol to the visual culture of a new era.
Font and Colors
Since Excellence In Motion is the official font on the French carrier’s website, experts suggest using an enlarged version of the logo. It’s also similar to other fonts used at different times, such as Mr. Eaves Mod Heavy, LCT Picón Extended Extra Bold, Adrianna Extd ExtraBold, and Venn Extended XBold.
The logo’s palette features the classic colors of the country the airline belongs to: red, white, and blue. The tricolor emphasizes the airline’s legal affiliation and embodies its historical heritage.