Air Afrique was a Pan-African airline, that was mainly owned by many West African countries for most of its history. It was established as the official transnational carrier for francophone West and Central Africa, because many of these countries did not have the capability to create and maintain a national airline, and had its headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The carrier was a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as well as the French Union's smaller IATA-like ATAF.

Air Afrique began a steady decline in the early 1980s, yet many years later the company was still considered the most reputable carrier in West Africa, and even one of the top five airlines of Africa. Mismanagement, corruption, and the downturn in the aviation industry after the 11 September 2001 attacks led the airline to a crisis that ended with its liquidation in early 2002. Even though there were plans to revive the airline with the creation of a new company, they never materialised, as it was succeeded by short-lived Afrinat International Airlines.

Air Afrique was originally conceived in February 1960 (1960-02) as a joint subsidiary of Air France and Union Aéromaritime de Transport (UAT) to take over the regional services these airlines had operated in Africa. The new company was registered in September 1960 as Air Afrique (Société de Transports Aériens en Afrique). During the first conference of Francophone countries that was held in Abidjan in October 1960 (1960-10), the Ivorian president Felix Houphouët Boigny recommended the constitution of a multinational airline for these countries. Eleven heads of state that attended to the next conference, held at Brazzaville in December the same year, agreed to form the company. Gambia, Ghana and Mali decided to stay away from the project, as they had plans for setting up their own airlines with aid from the Soviets. The formation of the company took place during the third conference, held at Yaoundé in early 1961: Air Afrique (Société de Transports Aériens en Afrique) changed its name to Société pour le Développement du Transport Aérien en Afrique (SODETRAF); the eleven countries and SODETRAF would set up the new airline. The Treaty of Yaoundé, signed on 28 March 1961 (1961-03-28), founded Air Afrique as a joint venture between Air France and UAT, each of which had a 17% holding, while the eleven newly independent former French colonies in West Africa, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Mauritania, Niger, the Republic of the Congo and Senegal, contributed with the remaining 66% of the capital, estimated in 500 millions of CFA francs.Léopoldine Doualla-Bell Smith, a flight attendant, was invited to move to Air Afrique in 1960; she was then the only qualified African person in French aviation, and thus became the first employee hired by Air Afrique.

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