Based in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire in Africa, Air Afrique was established as the official transnational carrier for francophone West Africa.

Air Afrique was established in March 28, 1961. The main stakeholders then were Air France, Union Aeromaritime de Transport (UAT), Societe pour le Developpement du Transport Aerien en Afrique and a number of West African countries like Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Republic of Upper Volta (known as Burkina Faso today) and Senegal. Cameroon and Gabon withdrew from the consortium in the early 70s while Togo joined the group in January 1968.

UAT handed its stake in Air Afrique to UTA when it merged with Compagnie de Transports Aeriens Intercontinentaux (TAI) in 1963. UTA's stake then passed into the hands of Air France, when the airline acquired a controlling stake of its rival in 1990.

The objective of this exercise was to create a comprehensive network of internal air services within the countries that had a stake in Air Afrique as well as spread international air services within Africa and beyond.

The newly formed multinational airline began commercial operations in August 1961 with Douglas C-54/DC-4 and Douglas DC-6 aircrafts. Air Afrique launched its first intercontinental, long-haul scheduled service to Paris during its first year of operation. Its ong-haul scheduled services extended to other major French cities such as Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and Bordeaux and also Rome Fiumicino – Italy, Geneva – Switzerland and New York JFK – the US. In the 1980s the flight route of London- Gatwick in the UK was short-lived.

A Douglas DC-8 which was leased was the first jet aircraft to join Air Afrique's fleet in 1962. In 1973 the airline acquired its first McDonnell Douglas DC-10 30 series. From October 1980 to March 1984 a Boeing 747 was in operation as well. A number of Airbus A310s and Airbus A300-600s were used from late 80s. In addition the company's fleet included the Airbus A300 B4 series, Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle 10B/11R series, Anthony An-12, Boeing 737 200/300 series as well as the Boeing 707 320C series freighter.

In 2001, the African governments which originally owned 68% of the company sold almost two-thirds of their combined stakeholding in Air Afrique to Air France and other private investors in exchange for a $69 million investment in the ailing airline. Air Afrique eventually folded later the same year with debts of US$500m and only three operational aircrafts. On July 24, 1987, Hussein Mohammed Hairi, a man claiming to be a member of Hezbollah, hijacked an Air Afrique DC-10 en route from Rome to Paris. He forced the pilot to fly him to Beirut. To indicate his determination he murdered a French passenger, one of 148 passengers on board the flight and seriously wounded an air hostess who attempted to overpower him.