9/20/2001: French Carrier Air Lib Is Created

DALLAS – Today in Aviation, Air Liberté (IJ) and AOM (IW) are renamed Air Lib in 2001. IJ and IW had been formally merged by owners SAirGroup on March 25, initially taking the name Société d’exploitation AOM Air Liberté SA.

The airline was then restructured as a low-cost carrier to compete with easyJet (U2) and Ryanair (FR), which were rapidly expanding in the French market. Despite being granted a loan of €30.5m by the French government, the airline was forced to declare bankruptcy in August 2002. It was subsequently liquidated on February 17, 2003.