Sudan Airways "Sudanair"

Sudan Airways "Sudanair" is the national carrier of the Republic of Sudan and one of Africa's oldest airlines. Founded in February 1946 with technical support from the British company Airwork and commercial backing from Sudan Railways, it began trial flights in April 1947 with four de Havilland Dove aircraft; scheduled flights launched that July, with Khartoum Airport as its hub from the start, linking the capital to Atbara, El Obeid, El Fasher, Geneina, Kassala, Port Sudan, Juba and Malakal, plus an external route to Asmara. In 1949, the railways withdrew from management while the government and Airwork continued operating the company.

The 1950s saw major expansion with the arrival of Douglas DC-3s: the company opened the Cairo route and Wad Medani, carried passengers and mail, and began regular Hajj flights to Jeddah in June 1954, reaching Athens by the mid-1950s. In June 1959 it launched the "Blue Nile" long-haul service between Khartoum and London via Rome in partnership with British United, and joined IATA the same year. It entered the jet age in the 1960s with two Comet 4Cs, became the first African airline to operate the Fokker F27 in 1962, joined the Arab Air Carriers Organization in 1965, then became a founding member of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) in 1968, and in 1967 became a full commercial company.

In the 1970s its network stretched over 20,000 kilometers serving cities such as Aden, Addis Ababa, Beirut, Cairo, Jeddah, London, Nairobi and Rome, and it modernized its fleet with Boeing 707s and 737s. In 2007 the government privatized the company while retaining 30 percent of its shares, then the state recovered the Kuwaiti group's 49-percent stake in 2011. Since March 2010 it has been on the list of airlines banned from flying to EU countries for safety reasons. It employed 2,362 people in April 2000, then about 1,700 according to 2011 figures. Per the latest available data, the company currently operates two aircraft serving 12 destinations, with Khartoum Airport as its main hub.

(Sources: Wikipedia — history of Sudan Airways; arabaviation.com — company profile)

— Editorial Team