Air France was formed on October 7, 1933 from a merger of Air Orient, Air Union, Compagnie Générale Aéropostale, Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne (CIDNA), and Société Générale de Transport Aérien (SGTA). In June 1945 French civil aviation was nationalized and, at the end of 1945, the entire French air transport network was entrusted to Air France. In 1946, the Paris to New York route was officially inaugurated.

In 1990, the airline acquired the operations of French domestic carrier Air Inter and international rival UTA - Union des Transports Aériens. Air France served as France's primary national flag carrier for seven decades prior to its 2003 merger with KLM. Between April 2001 and March 2002, the airline carried 43.3mn passengers and had a total revenue of €12.53bn. In November 2004, Air France ranked as the largest European airline with 25.5% total market share, and was the largest airline in the world in terms of operating revenue.

The Air France Special Collection contains menus, mostly in French and English, given on flights from Paris to Los Angeles, and also from Buenos Aires to Paris. The menus and their special presentation were in commemoration of the bicentenary of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. The Bastille was a fortress and prison, the fall of which is widely considered the start of the French Revolution. Other menus feature images of various model aircraft.