1.
Air France
–
Air France, stylized as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance. The airlines global hub is at Charles de Gaulle Airport with Orly Airport, Air Frances corporate headquarters, previously in Montparnasse, Paris, are located on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris. During the Cold War, from 1950 until 1990, it was one of the three main Allied scheduled airlines operating in Germany at West Berlins Tempelhof and Tegel airports. In 1990, it acquired the operations of French domestic carrier Air Inter and it served as Frances primary national flag carrier for seven decades prior to its 2003 merger with KLM. Between April 2001 and March 2002, the airline carried 43.3 million passengers and had a revenue of €12. 53bn. In November 2004, Air France ranked as the largest European airline with 25. 5% total market share, Air France operates a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing widebody jets on long-haul routes, and uses Airbus A320 family aircraft on short-haul routes. Air France introduced the A380 on 20 November 2009 with service to New York Citys JFK Airport from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, the carriers regional airline subsidiary, HOP. operates the majority of its regional domestic and European scheduled services with a fleet of regional jet aircraft. Of these airlines, SGTA was the first commercial company in France. The constituent members of Air France had already built extensive networks across Europe, to French colonies in North Africa, during World War II, Air France moved its operations to Casablanca. In 1936, Air France added French-built twin engine Potez 62 aircraft to its featuring a two compartment cabin that could accommodate 14 to 16 passengers. A high wing monoplane, it had a fuselage with composite coating while the wings were fabric covered with a metal leading edge. Equipped with Hispano-Suiza V-engines, they were used on routes in Europe, South America, on 26 June 1945 all of Frances air transport companies were nationalised. On 29 December 1945, a decree of the French Government granted Air France the management of the entire French air transport network, Air France appointed its first flight attendants in 1946. The same year the airline opened its first air terminal at Les Invalides in central Paris and it was linked to Paris Le Bourget Airport, Air Frances first operations and engineering base, by coach. At that time the network covered 160,000 km, claimed to be the longest in the world, Société Nationale Air France was set up on 1 January 1946. European schedules were initially operated by a fleet of Douglas DC-3 aircraft, on 1 July 1946, Air France started direct flights between Paris and New York via refuelling stops at Shannon and Gander. Douglas DC-4 piston-engine airliners covered the route in just under 20 hours, in September 1947 Air Frances network stretched east from New York, Fort de France and Buenos Aires to Shanghai
2.
Orly Airport
–
Paris Orly Airport is an international airport located partially in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi,7 NM south of Paris, France. Prior to the construction of Charles de Gaulle Airport, Orly was the airport of Paris. Orly Airport covers 15.3 square kilometres of land, originally known as Villeneuve-Orly Airport, the facility was opened in the southern suburbs of Paris in 1932 as a secondary airport to Le Bourget. Before this two huge airship hangars had been built there by the engineer Eugène Freyssinet from 1923 on, the 50th Fighter Group flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber aircraft from the airport until September, then liaison squadrons used the airfield until October 1945. The USAAF diagram from March 1947 shows the 6140-foot 27/207 runway with 5170-foot 81/261 runway crossing it at its north end. The November 1953 Aeradio diagram shows four runways, all 197 feet wide, 03L7874 ft, 03R6069 ft, 08L5118 ft. The American United States Army Air Forces 1408th Army Air Force Base Unit was the operator at Orly Field until March 1947 when control was returned to the French Government. The Americans left in 1967 as a result of Frances withdrawal from NATOs integrated military command, in May 1958 Pan Am DC-7Cs flew to Los Angeles in 21 hr 56 min, TWA, Air France and Pan Am flew nonstop to New York in 14 hrs 10-15 min. Air France flew to Tokyo in 31 hr 5 min via Anchorage or 44 hr 45 min on a seven-stop 1049G via India, Air Frances ten flights a day to London were almost all Viscounts, the only other London flight was Alitalias daily DC-6B. Paris-Orly Airport features two passenger terminal buildings, Terminal Sud and Terminal Ouest, The brick-style southern terminal building consists of six floors. The airside area and departure gates are located on the upper level 1, the waiting area, which features several shops as well, houses gates A1-A10 and A40-A42 and is furthermore connected to the gate areas Hall A and Hall B to each side of the building. 15 of the departure gates are equipped with jet-bridges, some of them are able to handle wide-body aircraft. The western terminal has a different layout than Terminal Sud, consisting of two floors and a area of four fingers rather than a brick-style layout. The ground level 0 features the arrivals facilities including 8 baggage reclaim belts as well as several service facilities, the departures area is located on level 1 with more stores and restaurants located here. This central departures area is connected to four areas named halls 1-4 which contain departure gates 10A-10P, 20A-20L, 31A-31F. 23 stands at this terminal are equipped with jet-bridges, with several of them able to handle wide-body aircraft. AOM French Airlines had its office in Orly Airport Building 363 in Paray-Vieille-Poste. After AOM and Air Liberté merged in 2001, the new airline, Air Lib, Orly Airport is connected to the RER B train line at Antony train station by the Orlyval automatic shuttle
3.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
4.
Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
5.
Essonne
–
Essonne is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It is named after the Essonne River and it was formed on 1 January 1968 when Seine-et-Oise was split into smaller departments. The Essonne department was created on 1 January 1968, from the portion of the former department of Seine-et-Oise. In June 1963 Carrefour S. A. opened the first hypermarket in the Paris region at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, in 1969, the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble were separated from Essonne and added to the department of Yvelines. Essonne belongs to the region of Île-de-France and it has borders with the departments of, Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-Marne to the north, Seine-et-Marne to the east, Loiret to the south, Eure-et-Loir and Yvelines to the west. All of northern Essonne department belongs to the Parisian agglomeration and is very urbanized, milly-la-Forêt is an example of its more rural communes. Founded in 1794, LEcole Polytechnique is one of the most prestigious engineering universities in France and this university was ranked 10th in the world by the Times Higher Education Supplement in 2005. Its campus is in the town of Palaiseau, one of the best public schools in France, it is ranked 52nd by Academic Ranking of World Universities. It is best known for its physics department, located in Orsay, Essonne, about 26,000 students are enrolled. The Headquarters of the Arianespace Company, a major commercial aerospace launcher, originally having been an ancient fort during Roman times, the first feudal lords began to inhabit the castle around 1000 AD. One major battle was fought in the castle during its lifetime, in 1465, Charles the Rash and French King Louis XI fought in the plains in front of the castle. In 1842, the reconstruction of the castle was started, covering 3,500 hectares in area, this forest is very important to the local population. The local government has kept roads and agricultural companies from cutting down parts of this forest, the forest receives between two and three million visitors annually, and the government spends 1.2 million euros a year maintaining it. Situated in Évry, this is a grande ecole for engineers The departments most high-profile political representative has been Manuel Valls and he visited its main town Évry to deliver remarks following the Charlie Hebdo massacre of January 2015
6.
Vickers Viscount
–
The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, the first such aircraft to enter service in the world. A product of the Brabazon Committee, it used a new form of propulsion, the Viscount was well received by the public for its cabin conditions, which included pressurisation, reductions in vibration and noise, and panoramic windows. It became one of the most successful and profitable of the first post-war transport aircraft,445 Viscounts were built for a range of international customers, during discussions between the committee and Vickers chief designer, Rex Pierson, Vickers advocated turboprop power. British European Airways was involved in the design and asked that the aircraft carry 32 passengers instead, the first design in June 1945 was based on the Viking with four turboprop engines and 24 seats and designated the VC-2 or Type 453. Later a double-bubble fuselage was proposed to give extra underfloor cargo space, neither was pressurised but it was soon realised that for economical operation an altitude above 20,000 ft was needed. The decision for pressurisation resulted in the double-bubble and elliptical fuselage designs being abandoned, a circular cross-section variant was offered at the beginning of 1946. The resulting 28-seat VC-2 was financed by the Ministry of Supply with an order for two prototypes, but, before the contract was signed, the government asked for the capacity to be increased to 32. This stretched the fuselage increase from 65 ft 5 in to 74 ft 6 in, the contract for the aircraft to Air Ministry specification C. 16/46 was signed on 9 March 1946 and Vickers allocated the designation Type 609 and the name Viceroy. While the Dart progressed better in development, the government asked in August 1947 for the prototype to be Dart-powered. The second prototype was designated the 630 and was named as the Viscount, the first prototype already under construction was converted to the Dart as a 630 as well. The resulting Vickers Type 630 design was completed at Brooklands by chief designer Rex Pierson and his staff in 1945, an order for two prototypes was placed in March 1946, and construction started in the companys Foxwarren Experimental Department. Originally Viceroy after the viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, there was work on replacing the Darts with the Mamba, but this was dropped by the time the prototypes were reaching completion. After Piersons death in 1948, George Edwards took over as chief designer, the prototype Type 630, registered G-AHRF, made its maiden flight from the grass airfield at Wisley on 16 July 1948, piloted by Joseph Mutt Summers, Vickers chief test pilot. Retrospectively commenting on Britains aviation industry, Duncan Burn stated, Had BEA committed itself to support of the Viscount. It was quite likely that the version would have gone into production. It was in a sense BEAs lack of enthusiasm for the 630 which made possible the success and it flew scheduled flights between London and Paris, and London and Edinburgh until 23 August 1950. 29 July 1950 flight between Northolt and Paris – Le Bourget Airport with 14 paying passengers was the first scheduled flight by any turbine-powered aircraft. The second prototype Viscount, the Type 663 testbed, had two Rolls-Royce Tay turbojet engines and first flew in RAF markings as serial VX217 at Wisley on 15 March 1950
7.
Dassault Mercure
–
The Dassault Mercure was a French twin-engined narrow-body jet-powered airliner. It was proposed in 1967, its first production flight was in 1973, the aircraft flew only with Air Inter and had very little success, resulting in only 12 aircraft built, all between 1971 and 1975. In 1967, backed by the French government, Dassault decided to propose a competitor to the Boeing 737 and this would attack this market segment at the upper end with a 140-seat jetliner, compared to the 100-seat Boeing 737-100 and the 115-seat Boeing 737-200 then in production. Marcel Dassault, founder and owner of Dassault, decided to name the aircraft Mercure, wanting to give the name of a god of mythology, I found of them only one which had wings with its helmet and ailerons with its feet, from where the Mercure name. Extremely modern computer tools for the time were used to develop the wing of the Mercure 100, even though it was larger than the Boeing 737, the Mercure 100 was the faster of the two. In June 1969, a full scale mockup was presented during the Paris Airshow at Le Bourget airport, on 4 April 1971, the prototype Mercure 01 rolled out of Dassaults Bordeaux-Merignac plant. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-11, the first flight took place in Merignac on 28 May 1971. The second prototype, powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15, first flew on 7 September 1972, on 19 July 1973, the first production aircraft made its maiden flight. The Mercure received its Type certificate on 12 February 1974, the Mercure 100 was the first commercial airliner to be operated by a 100% female crew on one flight. Dassault tried interest major airlines and several airlines, by touting the Mercure 100 as a replacement for the Douglas DC-9. A few airlines showed interest but only Air Inter, a domestic French airline, at maximum payload, its range was only 1,700 km. Consequently, the Mercure 100 achieved no foreign sales, several major airlines in the United States showed some interest, but the design costs were also high. This might have been mitigated if the original Mercure had had a fuel capacity. At the beginning of 1973 an agreement was created with the French government to finance this programme, Dassault was to receive a loan of 200-million French Francs from the French government, which would be paid back based on sales after the 201st aircraft was delivered. But Air France wanted an airliner powered by the Pratt & Whitney JT8D-117, Dassault needed an additional loan of 80-million French Francs from the government to accommodate Air Frances request. The French government replied to Dassault that it had to carry half of the development costs of the Mercure 200C on their own, the Mercure 200C project was canceled. In 1975, contacts were made with Douglas and Lockheed to build and sell the Mercure 200 in the US, but Marcel Dassault was concerned about the fact that the CFM56 had not had a single order yet, and production might end before the Mercure 200 could be built. Meanwhile, Douglas introduced a version of the DC-9, which was in direct competition for orders with the Mercure 200
8.
Paris
–
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
9.
Strasbourg
–
Strasbourg is the capital and largest city of the Grand Est region of France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany in the region of Alsace. In 2014, the city proper had 276,170 inhabitants, Strasbourgs metropolitan area had a population of 773,347 in 2013, making it the ninth largest metro area in France and home to 13% of the Grand Est regions inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 915,000 inhabitants in 2014, Strasbourg is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe and the Eurocorps, as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. The city is also the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, Strasbourgs historic city centre, the Grande Île, was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. The largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque, was inaugurated by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls on 27 September 2012. Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail, the port of Strasbourg is the second largest on the Rhine after Duisburg, Germany. Before the 5th century, the city was known as Argantorati, a Celtic Gaulish name Latinized first as Argentorate, after the 5h century, the city became known by a completely different name Gallicized as Strasbourg. That name is of Germanic origin and means Town of roads, Strasbourg is situated on the eastern border of France with Germany. This border is formed by the River Rhine, which forms the eastern border of the modern city. The historic core of Strasbourg however lies on the Grande Île in the River Ill, which flows parallel to, and roughly 4 kilometres from. The natural courses of the two eventually join some distance downstream of Strasbourg, although several artificial waterways now connect them within the city. This section of the Rhine valley is an axis of north-south travel, with river traffic on the Rhine itself. The city is some 400 kilometres east of Paris, in spite of its position far inland, Strasbourgs climate is classified as Oceanic, with warm, relatively sunny summers and cold, overcast winters. Precipitation is elevated from mid-spring to the end of summer, but remains largely constant throughout the year, on average, snow falls 30 days per year. The highest temperature recorded was 38.5 °C in August 2003. The lowest temperature recorded was −23.4 °C in December 1938. Nonetheless, the disappearance of heavy industry on both banks of the Rhine, as well as effective measures of traffic regulation in and around the city have reduced air pollution
10.
Airline
–
An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines utilize aircraft to supply services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements. Generally, airline companies are recognized with an air operating certificate or license issued by a governmental aviation body, Airlines vary in size, from small domestic airlines to full-service international airlines. Airline services can be categorized as being intercontinental, domestic, regional, or international, the largest airline currently is American Airlines Group. DELAG, Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft was the worlds first airline and it was founded on November 16,1909 with government assistance, and operated airships manufactured by The Zeppelin Corporation. The first fixed wing scheduled air service was started on January 1,1914 from St. Petersburg, Florida to Tampa, the four oldest non-dirigible airlines that still exist are Netherlands KLM, Colombias Avianca, Australias Qantas, and the Czech Republics Czech Airlines. The earliest fixed wing airline in Europe was the Aircraft Transport and Travel, using a fleet of former military Airco DH. 4A biplanes that had been modified to carry two passengers in the fuselage, it operated relief flights between Folkestone and Ghent. On 15 July 1919, the company flew a proving flight across the English Channel, flown by Lt. H Shaw in an Airco DH.9 between RAF Hendon and Paris - Le Bourget Airport, the flight took 2 hours and 30 minutes at £21 per passenger. On 25 August 1919, the company used DH. 16s to pioneer a regular service from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome to Le Bourget, the airline soon gained a reputation for reliability, despite problems with bad weather and began to attract European competition. In November 1919, it won the first British civil airmail contract, six Royal Air Force Airco DH. 9A aircraft were lent to the company, to operate the airmail service between Hawkinge and Cologne. In 1920, they were returned to the Royal Air Force, the first French airline was Société des lignes Latécoère, later known as Aéropostale, which started its first service in late 1918 to Spain. The first German airline to use heavier than air aircraft was Deutsche Luft-Reederei established in 1917 which started operating in February 1919, in its first year, the D. L. R. Operated regularly scheduled flights on routes with a length of nearly 1000 miles. Network was more than 3000 km long, and included destinations in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, another important German airline was Junkers Luftverkehr, which began operations in 1921. It was a division of the aircraft manufacturer Junkers, which became a company in 1924. It operated joint-venture airlines in Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the Dutch airline KLM made its first flight in 1920, and is the oldest continuously operating airline in the world. Established by aviator Albert Plesman, it was awarded a Royal predicate from Queen Wilhelmina. Its first flight was from Croydon Airport, London to Amsterdam, using a leased Aircraft Transport and Travel DH-16, in 1921, KLM started scheduled services
11.
SNCF
–
SNCF is Frances national state-owned railway company and manages the rail traffic in France and the Principality of Monaco. SNCF operates the national rail services, including the TGV. Its functions include operation of services for passengers and freight. SNCF employs more than 180,000 people in 120 countries around the globe, the railway network consists of about 32,000 km of route, of which 1,800 km are high-speed lines and 14,500 km electrified. About 14,000 trains are operated daily, since July 2013, SNCF headquarters are located in a Parisian suburb at 2, place aux Étoiles,93200 Saint Denis. In 2010 SNCF was ranked 22nd in France and 214th globally on the Fortune Global 500 list and it is the main business of the SNCF group, which in 2014 employed 245,763 people and had €27.2 billion of sales in 120 countries. The chairman of the SNCF group is Guillaume Pépy, SNCF operates almost all of Frances railway system, including the TGV, In the 1970s, SNCF began the TGV high-speed train programme with the intention of creating the worlds fastest railway network. It came to fruition in 1981, when the first TGV service, today, SNCF operates 1,850 km of designated high-speed track that accommodate more than 800 high-speed services per day. SNCF’s TGV trains carry more than 100 million passengers a year, TGV lines and TGV technology are now spread across several European countries in addition to South Korea.8 km/h. SNCF has a safety record. After nearly 30 years in operation, SNCF’s TGV system has experienced one fatal accident. SNCF also owns the tracks and the stations, since the 1990s, SNCF has been selling railway carriages to regional governments, with the creation of the Train Express Régional brand. SNCF also maintains a broad scope of business that includes work on freight lines, inter-city lines. SNCF experts provide logistics, design, construction, operations and maintenance services, SNCF operates the international ticketing agency, Voyages SNCF. SNCF has employees in 120 countries offering extensive overseas and cross border consulting and those projects include, Israel, Assistance and Training. SNCF International provides assistance to Israel Railways in every area of operations including projects to upgrade the networks general safety regulations. Other assistance and training programmes involve Infrastructure and the Traction Division, SNCF supervised the prime contractor responsible for construction of the Taiwan Railways Administration’s main high-speed rail line. It also trained rail traffic controllers, drivers, and crew members, on behalf of the Government of Taiwan, SNCF managed the high-speed railway Command Control Centre
