Eritrean Airlines: Difference between revisions

Eritrean Airlines is an Eritrean airline based at Asmara International Airport.^[1].^[2][3] Although Eritrean airlines offered flights from Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan and Rome in Europe, Nairobi and Djibouti in Africa and Dubai in the UAE, scheduled service has been discontinued since 2008, and the airline only operates a few hajj flights every year. It is wholly owned by the Government of Eritrea and does not operate scheduled services. Its main base is Asmara International Airport.^[4]

The airline was established in 1991, but in name only, serving as the ground handling agent at Asmara International Airport and at Assab and Massawa and sales agent for other major airlines flying to Eritrea. In May 2002 it was decided to expand into airline services. Eritrean Airlines took delivery of their first aircraft, a leased Boeing 767-300ER which it named "Queen Bee". A second Boeing 767 was bought in mid-2004 for $5.8 million USD.

The lease of the first Boeing 767 seems to have been replaced by an Airbus 320 in 2006 and then replaced again with a Boeing 757 in early 2007 and yet again replaced with a DC-9 in late 2007, ending up with an MD-83. The total fleet of the airline consists nonetheless of the one initially leased Boeing 767.^[5]

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.^[6] On September 21, 2006, Eritrean Airlines opened a deal 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.^[7] The deal has duly materialized since then, with the commencement of online Eritrean services to Lahore via Dubai four times per week, with full fifth freedom passenger and cargo traffic rights on Lahore - Dubai sector. The airline announced in 2008 that it was commencing seasonal services to Bamako, for Haj travellers.^[8] Flights to Djibouti have been suspended since the end of 2008 due to renewed tensions along the two countries' border and flights to Frankfurt have been temporarily cancelled as of the summer of 2009.^[9]

Eritrean Airlines serve the following at June 2011:

• Eritrea
  • Asmara - Asmara International Airport Main Hub
• Italy
  • Rome - Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport
• Pakistan
  • Lahore - Allama Iqbal International Airport [begins 22 June]^[10]
• Saudi Arabia
  • Jeddah - King Abdulaziz International Airport
• Sudan
  • Khartoum - Khartoum International Airport
• United Arab Emirates
  • Dubai - Dubai International Airport

The Eritrean Airlines fleet includes the following aircraft (as of June 2011) ^[11]:

• 1 Boeing 737-200 ^[12]
• 1 Boeing 767-200ER

• Eritrean Airlines Scandinavia
• Eritrean Airlines (Archive)