Air Méditerranée (Lourdes/Tarbes) has renewed its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) following an audit of its finances by the French Directorate General for Civil Aviation (Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile - DGAC).

Its previous AOC expired on February 28.

In an interview with France's Tourmag, CEO Anthony Ferretti said Air Méditerranée hoped to break even this year on the back of strong results from its Greek subsidiary, Hermes Airlines (Athens). Ferretti did highlight the continuing negative impact of rival Transavia France (TO, Paris Orly) on its charter operations.

"Our charter model has suffered, especially in the face of Transavia, which was functioning at a loss to gain shares of the market. This behavior has compromised our business and we had to reposition ourselves as a hybrid company, even if the charter still accounts for 54 % of our business. Yet our scheduled flights, launched in 2009 have increased in 2012 and 2013. These lines attract “the friends and family” traffic which is more stable than the tourist traffic," he said.

Using its fleet of five A321-200s and three B737-500s, Air Méditerranée operates both scheduled and charter passenger flights covering Western Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa and West Africa.