About us

Creation of Avico in Paris, specialising in air charter.

First functional diversification, with the creation of Ladybird Ground Services, an aeronautical cleaning company at Paris CDG airport. Ladybird is now also present at Paris Orly (under the Ladybird Air Services brand), Lyon St Exupéry (Ladybird Lyon Services) and Nice Côte d'Azur (Ladybird Azur Services).

Creation of aviation staffing agency BusyBee (which will be sold ten years later)

First geographic diversification, with the creation of a subsidiary in Ireland (Avico UK & Ireland in Dublin). This was followed by the opening of a subsidiary in Spain (Avico Consultants in Palma in 2004), an office in the UK (London in 2007), an office in Belgium (Brussels in 2009), a subsidiary in Senegal (Aviation & Compagnies in Dakar in 2011), a subsidiary in Côte d'Ivoire (Aviation & Compagnies Côte d'Ivoire in Abidjan in 2012), and offices in Sweden, Portugal and Morocco.

 

2003 was also the date of the Avico Group's first aircraft purchase, a DC10-30 from the bankrupt Air Lib. It was followed by several other DC10s, an Airbus A310, four Boeing 747-300s, ATR42s and ATR72s, Airbus A320s and A319s, and Beech 1900s as opportunities arose. The first transactions were carried out by Avico, then by Avico Asset Management, which was newly created in 2005.

Creation of Butterfly Aero Training (training) and AirToB (tour operating, sold).

 

Creation of Bienvenue Airport Services (VIP passenger assistance, resold).

 

Creation of Avico Aero Consulting (consulting), AeroGate (flight operations), Académie Maurice Chabé (training, resold) and AVT (travel agency)

 

 

A joint venture specialized in aeronautical financing is created with French bank CIC. Its name : Blue Lane Avico.

The first external growth operation was the partial acquisition of Flybus, a company that transfers passengers between aircraft and terminals at Paris CDG. This was followed by the acquisition of stakes in Safe Flight Academy, Arc en Ciel, RegioLease , Privajet and Pen Aviation.

Mourad Majoul and Avico are helping to revive tourism in Tunisia after the Arab Spring by launching Les Engagements du Jasmin.

Novespace (a subsidiary of the Centre National des Etudes Spatiales) has entrusted AVICO with the exclusive distribution of its weightlessness flights to the general public, under the Air Zero G brand.

Quality and Service are fundamental to the Avico Group.
This level of quality is now recognised: ISO 9001 certification forAvico, Ladybird and AeroGate, IOSA certification forAvion Express.

Avico joins forces with the National School of Civil Aviation (Enac) Alumni association, of which Mourad Majoul and Gilles Gompertz are proud members, to create the Enac Avico Challenge, a business startup competition focused on aeronautics. 18 projects were selected during the 1st edition of the Challenge and the winner received a grant of € 10,000.

The Avico Group's diversification reaches a new level. For the first time in its history :
• consolidated sales exceed the €150 million mark (€160.9 million),
• Non-chartering activities represent more than half of total activity (50.5%),
• international companies have a higher consolidated turnover than the Group's French companies (51.5%).

The Avico group participates in the creation of a new airline, Dominican Wings, based in the Dominican Republic and equipped with Airbus A320.

The group invests in the seeding and further development of the Sunbirds start-up, which designs solar-powered drones and won 1st prize in the Enac Avico Challenge.

Avico sells its stakes in the Flybus and Phoebus businesses to the Transdev group and in turn takes a significant equity stake in the Tunisian pilot training school Safe Flight Academy.

The Avico Group creates Airgos, a software company that develops innovative systems for airport ground handling and management. That same year Avico Group acquires a stake in the Senegalese airline company Arc en Ciel Aviation, now Arc en Ciel Airlines.

The pandemic brought global air transport and the Group's growth to an unprecedented halt.
The fundamentals, responsiveness and agility of the Avico Group's various components of the Avico Group enabled it to get through this crisis without major damage, despite the despite a 60% fall in sales.

The year 2022 is marked by a rebound in post-Covid activity. The level is still far from pre-Covid levels (-17% for air traffic in Europe), but the recovery is there. Operating activities are ahead of this recovery, with sales and earnings already on a par with pre-crisis years.

Acquisition of a stake in the airline Weststar NDD, renamed Westair Helicopters, and in the drone designer Pen Aviation in 2023.

The Avico Group founded Ernestine, which provides accommodation for flight crews and passengers in the event of irregularities on behalf of airlines.