Yemenia

Yemenia Airlines

IATA IY ICAO IYE Callsign YEMENI
Founded	July 1, 1978 (current AOC)
Hubs	Sana'a International Airport
Focus cities	Aden International Airport
Frequent-flyer program	Yemenia Sama Club
Fleet size	126
Destinations	24
Parent company	Government of Yemen
Headquarters	Sana'a, Yemen
Key people	Abdulkhaleq Saleh Al-Kadi (Chairman and CEO)
Website	yemenia.com

A Yemenia Boeing 727-200 taking off at Sana'a International Airport (2005).

Yemenia (Arabic: اليمنية‎), also known as Yemen Airways (Arabic: الخطوط الجوية‎) 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.

History

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

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. 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.

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

When South Yemen was united with the Yemen Arab Republic to form today's Yemen in 1990, 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. On 11 February 1996, the merger could be completed, which led to a significant part of the employees of the two airlines losing their jobs.

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. 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 (at that time, Paris, London, Rome and Frankfurt were served).^{[citation needed]}

European services were relaunched in December 2009. Since then, systematic inspections of Yemenia aircraft parked at EU airports are carried out, in order to assess and verify the safety standards. 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. Over the following months, Yemenia again cut flights to Europe. As of 2011, Frankfurt is the only destination still served.

On 12 June 2001, a fire broke out at the Yemenia headquarters in Sana'a. On 3 June 2011, during the 2011 Yemeni uprising, the building was again set on fire.

Destinations

Main article: Yemenia destinations

As of 2011, Yemenia operates scheduled flights to 24 destinations. The network is enlarged by codeshare flights operated by Felix Airways (domestic) and Gulf Air (via Bahrain).

Fleet

A Yemenia Airbus A310 landing at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (2004).

A Yemenia Airbus A330-200 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (2007).

A Yemenia Boeing 737-800 upon landing at Dubai International Airport (2009).

A stored Yemenia Boeing 727-200 at Sana'a International Airport (2005).

A Boeing 747SP of the Yemeni government in Yemenia colors taking off from Frankfurt Airport (2004).

As of October 2011, the Yemenia commercial passenger fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 11.8 years:

Yemenia fleet

Aircraft	In Service	Orders	Passengers				Notes
			F	J	Y	Total
Airbus A310-300	3	0	0	12 18	176 195	188 213
Airbus A320-200	2	8	0	12	138	150	The order for a total of 10 aircraft was signed in 2009, deliveries take place since 2011. Fitted with IAE V2500 engines.
Airbus A330-200	2	0	18	0	259	277
Airbus A350-800	0	10	TBA				Entry into service: 2014
Bombardier Dash 8-100	3	0	0	0	37	37
Total	10	18

Additionally, Yemenia operates two VIP-configured aircraft for the government of Yemen: A Boeing 727-200 and a Boeing 747SP. Some Ilyushin Il-76 freighters of the Yemeni Air Force are painted in Yemenia colors.^{[citation needed]}

Fleet development

Over the years, the airline has operated the following aircraft types:

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Incidents and accidents

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, 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.

There were a number of further incidents and accidents:

• On 3 November 1958, a Yemen Airlines (as the company was named at that time) Douglas C-47 Skytrain (registered YE-AAB) crashed near Poggiodomo in Italy, killing the eight people on board. The aircraft had been on a flight from Rome Ciampino Airport to Yemen with a planned stopover at Belgrade, carrying the Yemenite Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
• On 19 March 1969, a Yemen Airlines C-47 (registered 4W-AAS) crashed near Ta'izz during a post-maintenance test flight, killing the for occupants. It turned out that the elevator of the aircraft had not worked properly. Repair work had been underwent on that part, because it had been damaged some days earlier in a ground collision.
• On 16 September 1971, another Yemen Airlines C-47 (registered 4W-ABI) crashed near Rajince, Serbia when it encountered severe icing conditions, killing the five people on board. The aircraft had been on a multi-stopover flight from Yemen to Europe and had just departed Belgrade Airport.
• On 1 November 1972, a Yemen Airlines Douglas DC-3 (registered 4W-ABJ) was destroyed in a crash-landing at an airfield near Beihan.
• On 25 August 1973, a Yemen Airlines Douglas DC-6 was hijacked during a passenger flight from Ta'izz to Asmara. The perpetrator forced the pilots to divert the aircraft with fifteen other passenger and six crew members on board to Kuwait Airport, for which a refueling stop at Djibouti Airport turned out to be necessary. In Kuwait, the hijacker surrendered to local police forces.
• On 13 December 1973, a Yemen Airlines DC-3 (registered 4W-ABR) crashed near Ta'izz.
• On 23 February 1975, a Yemen Airlines DC-3 was hijacked during a flight from Al Hudaydah to Sana'a and forced to land at an airport in Saudi Arabia. There, the aircraft was stormed and the perpetrator overpowered.
• On 14 November 1978, a Yemen Airlines C-47 (registered 4W-ABY) was damaged beyond repair in a heavy landing at an airfield near Ma'rib.
• On 26 June 2000, a Yemenia Boeing 737-200C, registered 7O-ACQ, was damaged beyond repair when it veered of the runway upon landing at Khartoum International Airport following a cargo flight from Yemen.
• On 21 January 2001, Yemenia Flight 448, a Boeing 727-200 with 91 passengers and 10 crew on board, was hijacked 15 minutes into a flight from Sana'a to Ta'izz by an Iraqi man. The plane was forced to land at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport, where the perpetrator was overpowered by the crew.
• On 1 August 2001, a Boeing 727-200 (registered 7O-ACW) was damaged beyond economic repair when it overran the runway upon landing at Asmara International Airport following a flight from Sana'a with 107 passengers and four crew on board, none of which were significantly injured.

External links

• Official website
• Official website (Arabic)