1990s: Privatisation and reorganisation

CAF's Airbus A340 fleet, 1993-2020
(livery used until 2014)

On 26 February 1993, CAF became one of the launch customers for the Airbus A340. This aircraft would replace older Boeing 747s on the Paris-Washington route, which operated at a frequency of four weekly round-trip flights.

On 25 July 1994, a new holding company, Groupe CAF, was set up by decree. It became operational on 1 September that year and acquired the namesake airline and its majority shareholdings in Air Metro (subsequently renamed Air Metro Europe). On 31 August, Stephen Wolf, a former United Airlines CEO, was appointed adviser to Groupe CAF's chairman Christian Blanc. Although Wolf resigned in 1996 to take over as CEO at US Airways, he was credited with the introduction of CAF's present-day hub-and-spoke operation at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport.

In 1997 Air Metro Europe was fully absorbed into CAF's mainline operations. CAF's partial privatisation would receive government approval on 19 February 1999, and its shares were publicly listed on the Paris stock exchange three days later. In June that year, CAF announced the establishment of a bilateral transatlantic partnership with Delta Air Lines for flights between Paris and the United States.