The Somali Government has said that it would soon revive the country’s national carrier, Somali Airlines, after more than two-decades of after its closure.
The General Director of the Ministry of Aviation and Transport, Mohammed Osman-Ali, told the local media in Mogadishu that plans to revive “the white star carrier” from scrap yards were already in motion.
According to Somali local media, the airline would resume operations with four new air planes already decorated with the white and blue colours of the Somali national flag.
The airline’s long absence followed the collapse of the central government in 1991 and the subsequent outbreak of a civil war in the country.
In 1996, the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, and the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, established the Civil Aviation Caretaker Authority for Somalia, CACAS, in Nairobi, Kenya to handle the Somalia’s airspace.
Mr. Osman-Ali said the Somali Government and the Somali Civil Aviation Steering Committee were concluding arrangements after their recent meeting with various aviation governing bodies, including the ICAO in Montreal.
“During a two-day meeting in Montreal, Canada, the Somali Civil Aviation Steering Committee requested international assistance to rebuild the national civil aviation capacity over the next three years.
“The committee also requested that all administration and management of the industry should be handed back to the Somali authorities instead of operating in Nairobi by foreign staff,” the report said.
Mr. Osman-Ali said that there was a huge interest, and market for the Somali Airlines waiting to be explored as thousands of Somalis, who fled to other countries, were set to return to the country after many years of absence.
He said the government had ordered an additional plane, including SA Mair (9C Bratislavia) B737-400 and OM-SDA (MSN 24438) for the successful operation of the airline.
The Somali airline began operations on July 1964, in a co-ownership deal between Somalia and Alitalia national airline of Italy and later became a fully state-owned company in 1977.
