How it started
History
The new airline brand was created to better compete with the low-cost airlines which had taken a significant market share of Air France's regional routes. Régional operated with 44 aircraft to 38 destinations; Brit Air had 39 aircraft and served 32 destinations; and Airlinair served 26 destinations with its 24 aircraft; a combined total of 107 aircraft. These three airlines merged operations under the HOP! brand on 31 March 2012. As a fully registered airline Hop was established in January 2013 as an Air France subsidiary. It took over control of operations from the following 31 March.
In July 2015, Air France–KLM announced the formalization of the merger in year 2017 of Airlinair, Brit Air, and Régional brands under the Hop!, after having already legally grouped their assets under the eponymous company, thereby reducing its costs.
In October 2018, it was reported that HOP! would face restructuring measures, including the merger of all operations under the AF flight codes of parent Air France and a revision of the operated aircraft types.
On 1 February 2019, Air France announced that HOP! services would be rebranded as "Air France Hop". The first aircraft received the revised livery, being the one of Air France with small HOP! titles added, in May 2019.
On 1 September 2019, all HOP! flights started to be operated under the Air France brand and flight code. All aircraft were gradually repainted in full Air France livery. In December 2020, it was announced that HOP! would be restructured as a smaller feeder carrier. This new plan would see HOP! disappearing as a separate brand from Air France, transferring its Paris-Orly hub to Transavia France, and retiring its Bombardier CRJ fleet.
From Wikipedia’s article on Air France Hop, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2