Air Outre Mer was founded in 1988 in the French overseas département of the island of Réunion and began scheduled passenger service in 1990 with a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 and a Dornier Do 228. In October 1991, Air Outre Mer merged with Air Minerve, a French airline which was based at Orly and had operated since 1975. The two companies began operating under the name AOM French Airlines although the administrative name was "AOM-Minerve S.A.". Air Minerve was the first airline to compete directly with Air Inter on the French domestic airline market by opening a Paris - Nice route in May 1990. In February 1999, Swissair acquired a 49% stake in the airline as a part of its "hunter strategy". For most of the decade, the airline fiercely competed with Air France on both the French domestic market and on the air routes to the French overseas territories. Due to inappropriate fleet management and overcapacity, the airline quickly accumulated huge debts and consequently ceased operations in 2001. The airline's final bankruptcy was approved after several months of strikes. On 25 March 2001AOM French Airlines merged with Air Liberté, the airline retaining the name "Air Liberté". On 22 September 2001 the airline was renamed ":fr:Air Lib|Air Lib".. AOM's disappearance was followed by several other French airlines such as Aeris, Air Littoral, and Euralair in the next several years, leaving Air France, Corsair and Star Airlines as the three largest remaining airlines in France at the time.
Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216: On December 21, 1999, a Cubana de AviaciónMcDonnell DouglasDC-10-30 on lease from AOM on an international non-scheduled passenger flight from Havana suffered a landing accident at Guatemala City, Guatemala. The aircraft overran runway 19 and continued down a steep slope before coming to rest in a residential area. 8 of the 296 passengers and 8 of the 18 crew as well as 2 people on the ground were killed and the aircraft written off. The Guatemalan Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil investigated the accident.
Fleet
The AOM French Airlines fleet included the following equipment:
