Pilots plan R-lines takeover
As one French regional airline bites the dust, another is ready to take its place, operated by the company’s former pilots.

As one French regional airline bites the dust, another is ready to take its place, operated by the company’s former pilots. R-Lines has been placed into “legal observation,” which means it will almost certainly be declared bankrupt at the beginning of next month following its failure to meet its debt obligations.

According to one of R-Lines’ 93 employees, two-thirds of them pilots, the airline’s financial management proved “disastrous.” R-Lines was founded in 1999 by Flandres Air, then an Air France regional subsidiary, to operate a 19-seat Beech 1900 on its behalf. Based first at Valenciennes, on France’s northern border with Belgium, R-Lines later transferred to Angers-Marcé airport in central France. At the same time, Air France merged Flandres Air, Regional Airlines and Proteus Airlines to form Regional Compagnie Aérienne Européeune.

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