Jean-Charles Corbet is a French chief executive officer and

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

Background

Corbet graduated from École nationale de l'aviation civile (ÉNAC) of Toulouse, was promoted airline pilot in 1974), and began his career as an air transport pilot in Gabon, while waiting to be hired by Air France. After being hired by Air France, he was first officer on a Boeing 737 and

747 747 may refer to: * 747 (number), a number * AD 747, a year of the Julian calendar * 747 BC, a year in the 8th century BC * Boeing 747, a large commercial jet airliner Music and film * 747s (band), an indie band * ''747'' (album), by country musi ...

, and then

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of an Airbus A320 before being qualified for the Airbus A340.

Head of French pilots' union

As head of the Air France section of the Syndicat National des Pilotes de Ligne, he organized a ten-day strike at Air France, just before the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. In 2001, he became president of

Air Lib The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

, airline created with the merger of

AOM French Airlines AOM French Airlines (previously Air Outre-Mer) was the second-largest airline in France from 1990 until 2001. Its head office was in Building 363 at Orly Airport, Paray-Vieille-Poste. History Air Outre Mer (AOM) was founded in 1988 in the Fren ...

and

Air Liberté Air Liberté (later known as Air Lib) was an airline in France founded in July 1987. Air Liberté was headquartered in Rungis.''World Airline Directory''. Flight International. 26 March-1 April 1997.44 Air Lib was headquartered in Orly Airport ...

Recovery of AOM

In July 2001, Jean-Charles Corbet, through Holdco society, proposed to resume the group's assets AOM /

, while on probation for one euro. Although not having any credit standing or experience as a business leader, his offer (which was considered the best of the seventeen competing takeover bids) was accepted by the court of Creteil. The recovery plan was complemented by a commitment of

Swissair Swissair AG/ S.A. (German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne) was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002. It was formed from a merger between Bal ...

, a previous AOM shareholder, to pay US$1.250 billion to Holdco, only some of which will be paid (about $1 billion). The change of government in 2002, and the appointment of

Dominique Bussereau Dominique Bussereau (born 13 July 1952) is a French politician. He is president of the departmental council of Charente-Maritime since 2008 and president of the since 2015. He was Secretary of State for Transport within the government of ...

as Secretary of State for Transport, lead to the non-renewal of a loan granted status in December 2001, to Air Lib, by former Communist minister of transports (

Jean-Claude Gayssot Jean-Claude Gayssot (born 6 September 1944, in Béziers, Hérault) is a French politician. A member of the French Communist Party (PCF), he was Minister of Transportation in the government of Lionel Jospin of the Socialist Party from 1997 to ...

) and, on the advice of the new transport minister, the non-renewal of the operating license of the airline. The bankruptcy of

in 2003, resulted in the layoff of 3,200 employees of the company. Following the layoff, a parliamentary committee interviewed Corbet on the use of money paid by

and the heritage of the company (particularly its aircraft). The chairman of the parliamentary commission accused the then-leader of Air Lib to have misappropriated funds and transmitted its report to Justice. During the trial that followed, the prosecutor qualify the management company as an "methodically organized looting". On Tuesday, September 25, 2007, the Paris court sentenced him to eighteen months in prison and 3 million in damages. He was convicted for not having devoted to Air Lib, all 150 million paid by Swissair while other transfers were made to other group companies, Holdco. On February 27, 2009, the

Paris Court of Appeals The Court of Appeal of Paris (french: Cour d'appel de Paris) is the largest appeals court in France in terms of the number of cases brought before it. Its jurisdiction covers the departments of Paris, Essonne, Yonne, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-D ...

upheld the conviction. Corbet expressed through his lawyers, his intention to appeal. June 30, 2010, the Court of Cassation dismissed his appeal, arguing that it was not for him to challenge the decisions of lower courts and thus rendered final his sentence to 18 months in prisonAir Lib: la condamnation de Jean-Charles Corbet confirmée en appel
/ref> for not allocated funds that had contractually and permanently been given to

, according to the protocol signed between the Swiss company and him on 31 July and 1 August 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbet, Jean-Charles Living people French businesspeople École nationale de l'aviation civile alumni French aviators Commercial aviators Year of birth missing (living people)