Yemenia

Yemenia
IATA ICAO Callsign
IY IYE YEMENI
Founded 1962 (current AOC)
Hubs Sana'a International Airport
Focus cities Aden International Airport
Frequent-flyer program Yemenia Sama Club[1]
Fleet size 6
Destinations 29
Parent company Government of Yemen
Headquarters Sana'a, Yemen
Key people Ahmed Massoud Alwani[2]
Website yemenia.com

Yemenia (Arabic: اليمنية) is the national airline of Yemen, based in Sana'a. It operates scheduled domestic and international passenger flights to destinations in Africa and the Middle East, as well as to Asia and Europe out of its hubs at Sana'a International Airport, and to a smaller extent Aden International Airport. Yemenia is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.[3] As of 30 March 2015, the airline was forced to suspend all operations until further notice, mainly due to the current bombings in Yemen that also damaged Sana'a International Airport.[4]

History

Early years

A former Yemenia Boeing 727-200

Yemenia dates its origins back to Yemen Airlines,[5] a company that was founded in the second half of the 1940s[2] and owned by Ahmad bin Yahya, then King of Yemen.[6]

When the Yemen Arab Republic was proclaimed in 1962, Yemen Airlines was issued a new airline licence on 4 August of that year (which remains valid until today), thus becoming the flag carrier of the country, with its head office in the Ministry of Communication Building in Sana'a.[6] In 1967, the airline entered a co-operation with United Arab Airlines, which lasted until 1972. During that period, it was known as Yemen Arab Airlines.[5]

In July 1972, the Yemen Airways branding was launched, which coincided with the company being nationalized.[5] In 1977, Saudi Arabia acquired a 49 percent stake in the airline. The current name Yemenia was adopted on 1 July 1978.[5]

When South Yemen was united with the Yemen Arab Republic to form today's Yemen in 1990,[7] plans were made to form a single national airline by merging South Yemen's Alyemda into Yemenia. To achieve this, the shares held by Saudi Arabia were bought back by the government of Yemen in 1992.[5] On 11 February 1996, the merger could be completed,[8] which led to a significant part of the employees of the two airlines losing their jobs.[9]

Development since the 2000s

Since 2008, a number of safety actions by the European Union have been taken against Yemenia because of alleged poor maintenance standards in Yemen. In July 2009, France suspended the airworthiness certificates of two Yemenia Airbus A310 aircraft that were registered in the country.[10] In the same month, the European Aviation Safety Agency withdrew the maintenance approval that had been issued to Yemenia, which forced Yemenia to suspend all flights to Europe.

European services to Frankfurt were relaunched in December 2009.[11] Since then, systematic inspections of Yemenia aircraft parked at EU airports are carried out, in order to assess and verify the safety standards.[10] On 20 January 2010, then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that, owing to concerns of terrorist activity in Yemen, flights between the UK and the country would be suspended, as long as the security situation would not improve.[12] Over the following months, Yemenia again cut flights to Europe. As of 2011, Frankfurt is the only destination still served.

The head office is located in the Hassaba District,[13] in Downtown Sana'a, however the building was destroyed by fire during fighting in May 2011.[13][14][15][16] On 3 June 2011, during the 2011 Yemeni revolution, the building was again set on fire.[13]

On 30 March 2015, Yemenia was forced to suspend all flight operations under further notice due to the ongoing military conflict affecting its homebase at Sana'a International Airport.[4][17] In August 2015, Yemenia reinstated flights to Aden International Airport, with the first flight originating from Saudi Arabia.[18]

Destinations

Main article: Yemenia destinations

As of 2015, Yemenia operates scheduled flights to 29 destinations. The network is enlarged by codeshare flights operated by Felix Airways.[19]

Fleet

Current fleet

Yemenia Airbus A310-300
Yemenia Boeing 737-800
A Yemenia Airbus A330-200 at Frankfurt Airport in 2014. The first aircraft of the type entered the fleet in 2004.[20]

As of May 2015, Yemenia has an all-Airbus fleet that consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 14.5 years:[21][22]

Yemenia Fleet
Aircraft In Service Orders Passengers Notes
J Y Total
Airbus A310-300 2 — 12 187 199
18 195 213
Airbus A320-200 2 — 12 138 150
Airbus A320neo — 4[23] TBA
Airbus A350-900 — 10[24][25] TBA
Total 4 14

Fleet development

The first Airbus A330-200 entered the fleet in 2004 on lease from International Lease Finance.[20] In 2008, during the Dubai Air Show, the carrier signed a contract for the purchase of ten Airbus A350-800s.[26][27] In November 2009, Yemenia signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus for USD 700 million that covered ten Airbus A320s;[28] the order was firmed up in January 2010.[29][30] The first Airbus A320 joined the fleet in April 2011.[31]

Over the years, the airline has operated the following aircraft types:[5][22]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Aircraft Introduced Retired
Airbus A310
1995
—
Airbus A320
2011[31]
—
Airbus A330-200
2004[20]
—
Boeing 727
1979
2006
Boeing 747SP Unknown
2010
Boeing 737-200
1982
2005
Boeing 737-800
2002
2011
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Unknown
1995[32]
Dash 7
1981
1990
Douglas DC-3 Unknown Unknown
Ilyushin Il-76
1998
 Unknown

Incidents and accidents

Wikinews has related news: Yemeni passenger plane with 150 people on board crashes into Indian Ocean

The by far worst accident in the history of the company occurred on 30 June 2009, when Yemenia Flight 626 from Sana'a to Moroni, Comoros crashed into the sea shortly before landing. Of the 142 passengers and eleven crew that had been on the Airbus A310-300 with the registration 7O-ADJ,[33] only a 12-year-old girl, Bahia Bakari, was recovered, alive and conscious, although suffering from extreme tiredness and hypothermia, cuts to her face and a fractured collar-bone.[34][35][36][37][38][39][40]

There were a number of further incidents and accidents:

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Yemenia Sama Club homepage". Iye.frequentflyer.aero. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  2. 1 2 "History of the airline". Yemenia.com. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  3. ↑ "Arab Air Carriers Organization: member airlines". Aaco.org. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  4. 1 2 "Yemenia Airway". Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Information on Yemenia at the Aero Transport Data Bank". Aerotransport.org. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  6. 1 2 "World Airline Directory." Flight International. 26 March 1970. 509 Archived March 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ Ahmed Abdel-Karim Saif (1997). "Ahmed Abdel-Karim Saif, ''The politics of survival and the structure of control in the unified Yemen 1990-97''". Al-bab.com. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  8. ↑ "Information about Alyemda at the Aviation Safety Network". Aerotransport.org. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  9. ↑ "Yemenia background Archived October 27, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.." Yemenia. Retrieved on 26 October 2009.
  10. 1 2 "Safety Information about Yemenia at the Aviation Safety Network". Aviation-safety.net. 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  11. ↑ "Yemenia nimmt Frankfurt Flüge wieder auf". Austrian Wings. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "Brown unveils security measures". BBC News. 20 January 2010.
  13. 1 2 3 "Fire engulfs Yemeni airline building Archived June 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.." Press TV. 3 June 2011. Retrieved on 3 June 2011.
  14. ↑ "World Airline Directory." Flight International. 31 March-6 April 1999. p. 108 Archived June 23, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.. "Al-Hasaba, PO Box 1183, Airport Road, Sana a. Yemen"
  15. ↑ "World Airline Directory." Flight International. 26 March-1 April 2002. p. 105 Archived March 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.. "Al-Hasaba, PO Box 1183, Airport Road, Sana'a. Yemen"
  16. ↑ "Fire engulfs Yemenia airlines headquarters in Sana'a Archived June 16, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.." Associated Press at The Independent. 12 June 2001. Retrieved on 20 May 2009.
  17. ↑ "Yemenia suspends operations indefinitely; Sana airport damaged". ch-aviation. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  18. ↑ "تقرير: رحلة مدنية إلى عدن". YouTube. Al Ekhbariya. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  19. ↑ "Airport arrivals and departures". Flightstats.com. Retrieved 2015-03-16.
  20. 1 2 3 "Yemenia starts fleet upgrade with A330-200". Flightglobal. Flight International. 2 November 2004. Archived from the original on 16 July 2015.
  21. ↑ "Yemenia fleet and seating configuration list". Planespotters.net. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  22. 1 2 "Yemenia past and present fleet information". Airfleets.net. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  23. ↑ ORDERS & DELIVERIES, Airbus Int. Official, retrieved: 1 December 2015
  24. ↑ "news item about Yemenia ordering 10 Airbus A350 aircraft". Middleeastaviation.aero. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  25. ↑ "Airbus Looks At Larger Capacity For A350-1000". Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  26. ↑ "Yemenia orders ten Airbus A350 XWBs" (Press release). Airbus. 13 November 2007. Archived 16 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  27. ↑ Dunn, Graham (13 November 2007). "Dubai 2007: Yemenia firms deal for 10 A350 XWBs". Dubai: Flightglobal. Archived 16 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  28. ↑ Kingsley-Jones, Max (16 November 2009). "Dubai 09: Yemenia signs MoU for 10 A320s". London: Flightglobal. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015.
  29. ↑ "Yemenia Airlines completes purchase of 10 A320s from Airbus" (Press release). Airbus. 21 January 2010. Archived 16 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  30. ↑ Morrison, Murdo (21 January 2010). "BAHRAIN 2010: Yemenia firms order for 10 A320s". Bahrain: Flightglobal. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015.
  31. 1 2 "Yemen Airways takes delivery of its first Airbus A320" (Press release). Airbus. 28 April 2011. Archived 16 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  32. ↑ twinotterarchive Retrieved 21 June 2016
  33. ↑ http://www.skynews.com.au/news/article.aspx?id=347522. Retrieved June 30, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  34. 1 2 3 4 "Yemenia Airways". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. 28 November 2004. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
  35. ↑ Allen, Peter (1 July 2009). "Yemeni plane crash: father tells how girl survivor was saved by God". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  36. ↑ "Yemeni plane 'crashes in ocean' from BBC Breaking News". BBC News. 2009-06-30. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  37. ↑ Amir, Ahmed; Andrew Cawthorne; Jon Hemming (29 June 2009). "Yemeni plane crashes in Comoros, 150 on board". News. Reuters. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
  38. ↑ "Accident Description". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. 30 June 2010. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
  39. ↑ "Yemenia Airbus A310 Crashes – The Sky Isn't Falling". PopSci.com.au. 2009-07-01. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
  40. ↑ "'Miracle' Crash Girl Survived 13 Hours at Sea". MSNBC. Redmond: MSNBC Interactive News. The Associated Press. 2 July 2009. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
  41. ↑ "1958 crash at the Aviation Safety Network". Aviation-safety.net. 1958-11-03. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  42. ↑ "1969 crash at the Aviation Safety Network". Aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  43. ↑ "1971 crash at the Aviation Safety Network". Aviation-safety.net. 1971-09-16. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  44. ↑ "1972 crash landing at the Aviation Safety Network". Aviation-safety.net. 1972-11-01. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  45. ↑ "1973 hijacking at the Aviation Safety Network". Aviation-safety.net. 1973-08-25. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  46. ↑ "1973 crash at the Aviation Safety Network". Aviation-safety.net. 1973-12-13. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  47. ↑ "1975 hijacking at the Aviation Safety Network". Aviation-safety.net. 1975-02-23. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  48. ↑ "1978 incident at the Aviation Safety Network". Aviation-safety.net. 1978-11-14. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  49. ↑ "Accident Description". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. 20 November 2005. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
  50. ↑ "Hijacking Description". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. 4 October 2005. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
  51. ↑ "Accident Description". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. 22 June 2003. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
  52. ↑ Yemenia 747SP destroyed in Aden

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