Yemenia

Yemenia dates its origins back to Yemen Airlines,[4] a company that was founded in the second half of the 1940s[2] and owned by Ahmad bin Yahya, then King of Yemen.[5] 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.[5] 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.[4]

A former Yemenia Boeing 727-200.

In September 1972 and following nationalisation Yemen Airlines was reorganised and renamed Yemen Airways Corporation (YAC).[6] At March 1975 YAC had 60 employees; the airline's fleet consisted of four DC-6Bs and four DC-3s that served domestic destinations and an international network that included Asmara, Cairo, Djibouti, Dhahran, Jeddah and Kuwait.[7] On lease from World Airways, YAC operated a pair of Boeing 737-200 aircraft for two and a half years until the carrier ordered an aircraft of the type in mid-1976.[8] In early 1977, a new airline was jointly established by the governments of the Yemen Arab Republic and Saudi Arabia, with both countries holding 51% and 49% of the shares, respectively, and the name Yemen Airways was adopted on 1 July 1978.[6] In April 1978, a two-year contract for the provision of two Boeing 707-320Cs that included the supply of aircrews and engineering support was signed with British Midland Airways (BMA).[9] In July 1979, the carrier signed a three-year agreement with Pan Am for the provision of technical maintenance and personal training.[6][10] Two de Havilland Canada Dash 7s were ordered.[11] The unilateral cancellation of the contract signed with BMA by Yemen Airways led the British carrier to file a claim against the Yemeni airline, which resulted in the impoundment of one of its Boeing 727-200s.[9]

At July 1980 the workforce was 750 and chairmanship was held by Shaif M. Saeed. By this time, five Boeing 727-200s, two Boeing 737-200s, one Douglas DC-6A and three DC-3s made up the airline's fleet. Domestic scheduled passenger services linked Sana'a with Baydhan, Hodeida, Mareb and Taiz; Abu Dhabi, Athens, Cairo, Damascus, Dhahran, Dubai, Jeddah, Karachi, Kuwait, Muscat, Rome and Sharjah were part of the international network. Cargo services were also undertaken.[6] The two Dash 7s were part of the fleet by March 1985, along with five Boeing 727-200s and one Boeing 737-200, and the airline had expanded its route network to include Amsterdam, Bombay, Frankfurt, Larnaca and London-Gatwick. The number of employees had grown to 1,100.[12]

When South Yemen was united with the Yemen Arab Republic to form today's Yemen in 1990,[13] 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.[4] The merger took place in 1996.[14] Yemenia became an Airbus A310 operator in 1995 with two leased A310-200s;[15] the introduction of the Airbus A310-300 followed in March 1997.[16]

A Yemenia Boeing 737-800. The type was phased in in 2002.[17]

At March 2000 the chairmanship was held by Hassan Sohbi and the number of employees was 4,017. The aircraft operated at this time consisted of three Airbus A310-300s, two Antonov An-26s, five Boeing 727-200 Advanced, one Boeing 737-200 Advanced, one Boeing 737-200C, four Dash 7s, two DHC-6 300s and two Lockheed C130H Hercules. The list of domestic destinations served at this time were Aden, Al Ghaydah, Ataq, Hodeidah, Riyan Mukalla, Sanaa, Seiyun, Socotra and Taiz, whereas Abu Dhabi, Addis Ababa, Amman, Asmara, Bahrain, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Dar es Salaam, Djibouti, Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Karachi, Khartoum, London, Moroni, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris, Riyadh, Rome and Sharjah comprised the international network.[18] On lease from International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), the first Boeing 737-800 joined the fleet in May 2002.[17] The first Airbus A330-200 entered the fleet in 2004 on lease from ILFC.[19]

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.[20] European services to Frankfurt were relaunched in December 2009.[21] Since then, systematic inspections of Yemenia aircraft parked at EU airports are carried out, in order to assess and verify the safety standards.[20] 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.[22]

In March 2015, Yemenia was forced to suspend all flight operations until further notice due both to a military conflict that had Sanaʽa International Airport as a target of air raids and to restrictions over the Yemeni airspace.[23][24][25] In August 2015, Yemenia reinstated flights to Aden International Airport, with the first flight originating from Saudi Arabia.[26] The blockade was reinstated on 21 February 2016,[27] and lifted on 14 November 2017, when the first commercial flight touched down at Aden International Airport.[3][28] Flights were cancelled once again, this time for less than a week, resuming on 1 February 2018.[29][30] According to The National newspaper, in November 2018 Yemenia announced that they would be seeking to resume flights from Aden International Airport to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Salalah in the Persian Gulf and Asmara, Moroni, and Djibouti in Africa, as well as leasing more aircraft.[31] However, there has not been any addition to the destinations of Yemenia airlines (Cairo, Amman, Jeddah, Khartum and Mumbai).[32]

In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Yemen, Yemenia operated repatriation flights to Egypt, Jordan, and India.[33][34] The airline received $1.15 million in compensation.[35] In June chairman Ahmed Masood Alwani announced that the airline's two Airbus A310s would be phased out.[36]

The head office is located in the Hassaba District, in Downtown Sanaʽa, however the building was destroyed by fire during fighting in May 2011.[37][38][39][40] On 3 June the same year, during the 2011 Yemeni revolution, the building was again set on fire.[37]

A Yemenia Airbus A310-300. The first aircraft of the type joined the fleet in March 1997.[16]

As of November 2020, Yemenia has an all-Airbus fleet that consists of the following aircraft:[42]

A Yemenia Airbus A330-200 at Frankfurt Airport in 2014. The first aircraft of the type entered the fleet in 2004.[19]

In 2008, during the Dubai Air Show, the carrier signed a contract for the purchase of ten Airbus A350-800s.[45][46] The order was subsequently altered to include the larger -900 version.[47] In November 2009 (2009-11), Yemenia signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus for USD 700 million that covered ten Airbus A320s;[48] the order was firmed up in January 2010 (2010-01).[49][50] The first Airbus A320 joined the fleet in April 2011 (2011-04).[51] The A320 order was later restructured and four of them were converted to the A320neo.[52]

Over the years, the airline has operated the following aircraft types:[4][53]