Airline Name
TAT European AirlinesIATA: VD / ICAO: TAT / Callsign: TAT
Country of Origin
France
Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)
AT43 (ATR 42-300) (8 operated),F100 (Fokker 100) (14 operated),
At ZRH,
Variants operated in BA colours from 1995,
TAT also operated a couple of F100s in Air France livery which were covered here.
B732 (737-200) (5 operated),
B733 (737-300) (2 were leased between 1996 and 1997 but they were only French registered and were not painted, so still wore their Landor BA colours and titles)
Not in-game,
AT72 (ATR 72-200) (6 operated),
E120 (Embraer EMB 120) (4 operated for TAT by Flandre Air),
This one wore Alsavia (Another lessor but short lived from 89-93. They were based out of Basel in Alsace-Lorraine hence the name and operated 2 for TAT which were taken over by Flandre),
F28 (F28-1000) (10-15 operated),
Pre-BA acquisition livery in the 80s at MAN. Source for the quote,
1995 onwards BA colours,
1970s Air France colours,
Air France late 1980s (Only a couple wore the Air France livery, most wore the airline one),
Sabena colours (One or two operated for a short time for Sabena),
F28-2000,
Pre-BA acquisition livery in the 80s,
1995 onwards BA colours,
F28-4000,
Air France colours,
BE20,
B190,
Why should this airline be added?
TAT was established in 1968 as Touraine Air Transport, flying the Beech 99 on small French domestic routes. In 1973, the airline was purchased by Société Auxiliare de Services et Materiel Aéronautiques (SASMAT), the owner of rival French regional airline Rousseau Aviation, who had also purchased Taxi Avia France and Air Paris and merged them into TAT. After this purchase it rapidly expanded the regional routes it offered throughout the 1970s mainly from Paris Orly and Lille as well as beginning some routes to neighbouring European nations.The airline also began a partnership with Air Inter in the 1970s on domestic routes, which was the largest domestic airline in Europe at the time, and with Air France on international routes including Lille to LHR. During the early 1980s TAT acquired regional rivals Air Alpes, Air Alsace and UAR-Air Rouergue and through this it established itself as France’s largest regional airline as well as the biggest regional partner of Air France, expanding its network and changing its name to Transport Aérien Transrégional in 1984 to reflect that growth.
In the early 1990s it operated new routes due to the liberalisation of the EU skies, including the LGW to CDG route which Air France is relaunching this year, and began marketing itself at TAT European Airlines to better appeal to non-French travellers. In 1993, BA acquired a 49.9% stake in the airline and some aircraft began to be painted into the British Airways livery, allowing the airline to begin flying under BA flight numbers and operating the LHR to Orly flights 3 times a day for BA, allowing the parent to circumvent the slot restrictions at the airport. In 1996, BA acquired the remaining 50.1% becoming the full owner of TAT, then merging it with Air Liberté in 1998 to try to reduce operational costs, bringing to an end the TAT brand, though the airline still flew under Air Liberté till 2001 when BA disposed of both.
Air Liberté ended up being sold to Swissair after being merged with AOM French Airlines but ofc the new parent went bust towards the end of that year and despite a €30.5 million from the French government, it couldn’t recover and went bankrupt in 2002.
It would make for an excellent airline in-game, again increasing the amount of European regional operators and also bringing an iconic regional airline into the game, plus giving the Fokker 100 another few liveries which I know all players want to see.