IY IYE Destinations 29 Key people Ahmed Massoud Alwani Founded 1961 Frequent-flyer program Yemenia Sama Club | IYE YEMENI Parent company Government of Yemen Headquarters Sana'a, Yemen Fleet size 6 | |
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Hubs Sana'a International Airport Hub Sana'a International Airport | ||
Cvr yemenia 626 stalled on approach 1 2 30 june 2009
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 lesser extent Aden International Airport. Yemenia is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization. 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.
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Yemenia airways from jeddah to sana a onboard airbus a330
Early years
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.
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. 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. 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.
The head office is located in the Hassaba District, in Downtown Sana'a, however the building was destroyed by fire during fighting in May 2011. On 3 June 2011, during the 2011 Yemeni revolution, the building was again set on fire.
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. In August 2015, Yemenia reinstated flights to Aden International Airport, with the first flight originating from Saudi Arabia.
Destinations
As of 2015, Yemenia operates scheduled flights to 29 destinations. The network is enlarged by codeshare flights operated by Felix Airways.
Current fleet
As of May 2015, Yemenia has an all-Airbus fleet that consists of the following aircraft:
Fleet development
The first Airbus A330-200 entered the fleet in 2004 on lease from International Lease Finance. In 2008, during the Dubai Air Show, the carrier signed a contract for the purchase of ten Airbus A350-800s. In November 2009 (2009-11), Yemenia signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus for USD 700 million that covered ten Airbus A320s; the order was firmed up in January 2010 (2010-01). The first Airbus A320 joined the fleet in April 2011 (2011-04).
Over the years, the airline has operated the following aircraft types:
Incidents and accidents
The company's worst accident 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: