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. Backed by the French government, the move 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.
In 1935, flights expanded 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, the airline introduced the Boeing 727 and 747, and extended routes to China and the Soviet Union.
Rising fuel costs in the 1970s strained finances, and by 1976 the state controlled 98 percent of the 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 the Airbus A318, A319, A320, and A321, as well as the Boeing 777 and A330, while Transavia France strengthened its 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 the 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 and were gradually phased out 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 says it is the fastest animal, and the ancient gods harnessed it 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 and has operated since 1933. It operates over 300 planes and serves around 50 million passengers annually, flying to 320 cities in 116 countries. Its main hubs are Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports. 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; before the merger, it was France’s main airline.
1933 – 1958
For several decades, Air France used a logo featuring an unusual symbol: a pegasus. The logo appeared in 1933. Inside a dark-blue circle, a winged horse stood on its hind legs and lifted 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, a stylized turbine symbolized the company’s focus on aviation.
The choice of the pegasus reflected the blend of flight’s romance and aviation’s technological progress at the 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 for uniting tradition and modernity in a single mark. The pegasus conveyed 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, set in bright blue uppercase letters, appeared two years after Excoffon’s appointment.
Excoffon designed the typeface Antique Olive Nord, with 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 the following year as a separate type family. In 1964, the font received its final name, Antique Olive Nord, and became widely known by that name.
Excoffon’s logo defined Air France. For decades, it projected 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 modernized by introducing a logo that became an era-defining symbol. In November 1975, it first appeared on Concorde fuselages, 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 mark’s main feature was five slanted stripes forming a parallelogram-like shape. 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 narrow.
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 logo’s introduction coincided with the start of Concorde’s commercial 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 that retained the brand’s previous elements while reorganizing them. In the new design, the AIR FRANCE name sits above all other elements, emphasizing its importance in the mark. A thin black line runs beneath it, separating the text from the company symbol.
Below the line, the company symbol consists of five stripes: four blue and one red. The stripes are parallel and slanted to the right. The mark’s proportions remained unchanged, with the two outer stripes matching in width and the three central ones narrowing to create a sense of motion.
The logo’s color scheme continued to draw on the French national flag. The classic blue, white, and red combination is complemented by a black line that adds contrast and sharpens the composition.
1998 – 2009
In 1998, the airline updated the logo style again, changing the element proportions and removing the dividing line. The diagonal stripe symbol widened and shortened, shifting from lines to a compact shape made of five parallelograms. The stripes retained their original colors.
The Air France wordmark sits above the symbol and uses the same typeface, but the letters now appear more vertically compressed and 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, with 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 upward and to the right, reminiscent of 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 for 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 preserved the brand’s core elements while adapting the symbol to a new era’s visual culture.
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 also resembles 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.