Eritrean Airlines

History

The airline was nominally established in May 1991 (1991-05), serving as the ground handling agent at Asmara International Airport and at Assab and Massawa. It also acted as sales agent for other major airlines flying to Eritrea. In May 2002, it was decided to expand into airline services. In April 2003 (2003-04), an ex-EgyptAir 14-year-old Boeing 767-300ER was leased from Boeing and used to start operations between Asmara and Amsterdam. It was the first aircraft the airline took possession of, and was named Queen Bee.

The lease of the first Boeing 767 seems to have been replaced by an Airbus A320 in 2006 and then replaced again with a Boeing 757 in early 2007. It was again replaced with a DC-9 in late 2007, ending up with an MD-83.

In April 2003, Eritrean Airlines started regular services between Asmara and Frankfurt, Milan, Nairobi and Rome. In 2004, the airline added Amsterdam as another destination and in 2005, services began to Djibouti and Dubai. Meanwhile, the Nairobi route was dropped. By 2006, the flights to Amsterdam had been dropped while flights to Milan remained seasonal. On 21 September 2006, Eritrean Airlines entered an accord with the Government of Pakistan to start direct flights between Eritrea and Pakistan. Eritrean Airlines received permission from the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan to start two flights a week each for Karachi and Lahore. The deal has duly materialised since then, with the commencement of online Eritrean services to Lahore and Karachi via Dubai four times per week on each route, with full fifth freedom passenger and cargo traffic rights on Pakistan - Dubai sector.

The airline announced in 2008 that it was commencing seasonal services to Bamako, for Hajj travellers. Flights to Djibouti have been suspended since the end of 2008 due to renewed tensions along the two countries' border and flights to Frankfurt had been temporarily cancelled as of summer of 2009.

In June 2011, a senior Eritrean Foreign Ministry official said that the United States government has applied pressure prohibiting companies from leasing aircraft to Eritrea. He stated that Washington is resorting to such illegal acts as part of its hostile attempts of stiffening anti-Eritrea sanctions, at a time when the Eritrean government is engaged in programs of buying and leasing of passenger planes under a new Pakistani management.

Eritrean Airlines resumed operations on 16 July 2011. It also introduced a new livery on the first A320 received, which was used for the inaugural service to Dubai and Lahore. A second A320 was added in October, and flights to Karachi were launched. The carrier also planned to restore domestic services once the currently stored Dornier fleet is made airworthy. Long-term fleet plans may include introduction of wide body aircraft like the Airbus A330, as well as new Boeing 737s to replace the A320.

EU ban

Eritrean Airlines was not included in the list of airlines banned in the European Union (EU) that was released in April 2012 (2012-04). According to all the subsequent lists released by the European Commission since December 2012 (2012-12), the airline has been barred from flying into every country of the EU.

Destinations

As of November 2015, Eritrean serves the following destinations:

Fleet

The Eritrean Airlines fleet consists of a single Boeing 767-200ER (as of August 2016). Eritrean is also said to have six Dornier aircraft, which are stored in Eritrea.

Historic fleet

The airline previously operated the following equipment: