It was opened on October 2, 1991, the second line to use the VAL automatic metro.
Its construction was controversial: the competing proposal for a public transport link to the airport involved a railway line integrated to the RER network, which would have allowed trains from various destinations to serve the airport. The shuttle option was seen as the least integrated with the rest of the network.
It was initially run privately by Matra, but construction and oprating costs were too high to generate profits; and it was later passed over to the publicly-owned RATP. It remains, however, the only public transport link in the Paris region on which the Carte Orange travel pass is not valid.