In 1948, the Tunisian government reached an agreement with Air France and Tunisair was created. It started operations in 1949. By 1957, the number of shares held by Air France were decreased and the Tunisian government became the largest shareholder in Tunisair.
By 1990, 2 Airbus A320 aircraft were added to its fleet, keeping the same livery as before.
During 1993-1998, Tunisair began to expand its services across Europe by commencing flights to Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Bratislava, Lisbon, Linz, Salzburg, Graz, Moscow, Beirut and Stockholm. Only Beirut and Stockholm are served by regular scheduled flights, Lisbon is seasonal at best. The rest are served by charter flights. The Moscow flight has been discontinued, even in charter.
On October 21, 1998 Tunisair celebrated their fiftieth anniversary of its creation, also beginning to get rid of their Boeing 727's.
In 1999 Tunisair and Air France signed an agreement to form an alliance together.
As of 4 November2008, the average age of the Tunisair fleet is 12.6 years. [2]
On 29 April2008, Airbus announced that Tunisair placed a firm order for 10 A320s (with 3 options), 3 A330s and 3 A350XWBs (with 1 option) aircraft for fleet renewal and expansion in a deal valued at $1.6 billion.[3]