Postage stamp of Afghanistan from 1965 commemorating the 10th anniversary of Ariana. The logo features an Afghan swallow bird and a blue field representing precious lapis lazuli stones; it was personally designed by the then King of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah.[8]
The airline was set up on 27 January 1955.[9] It was established as Aryana Airlines with the assistance of Indamer Co. Ltd., which initially held a 49% stake, and the government of Afghanistan owned the balance.[10] At the beginning, services were operated to Bahrain, India, Iran, and Lebanon, with a fleet of three Douglas DC-3s.[10] In 1957, Pan American World Airways became the minor shareholder of the airline when it took over the 49% interest from Indamer.[11] Domestic scheduled services started the same year.[11] By April 1960 (1960-04), a fleet of three DC-3s was being used for linking Kabul with Amritsar, Delhi, Jeddah, and Karachi, as well as with some points within Afghanistan, while a single DC-4 operated the Kabul–Kandahar–Tehran–Damascus–Beirut–Ankara–Prague–Frankfurt service, the so-called "Marco Polo" route.[11] In the early 1960s, US$1,100,000 (equivalent to $11,000,000 in 2023) from US aid to Afghanistan was used to capitalise the company.[12]
By March 1970 (1970-03), the airline had 650 employees. At this time, the fleet comprised one Boeing 727-100C, one CV-440, one DC-3 and two Douglas DC-6s that worked on routes serving the Middle East, India, Pakistan, the USSR, and Istanbul, Frankfurt, and London.[13] Domestic services were then operated by Bakhtar Alwatana, which was established by the government in 1967 for this purpose.[14]
Following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 1996 and the proclamation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the country faced substantial economic sanctions from the international sector during the Taliban regime. The sanctions, along with the Taliban government's control of the company and the grounding of many of the carrier's international flights, had a devastating effect on the economic health of the company through the 1990s. The fleet was reduced to only a handful of Russian and Ukrainian built An-26s, Yakovlev Yak-40s and three Boeing 727s, which were used on the longest domestic routes. In October 1996, Pakistan provided a temporary maintenance and operational base at Karachi. With no overseas assets, by 1999 Ariana's international operations consisted of flights to Dubai only;[21] also, limited cargo flights continued into China's western provinces. However, sanctions imposed by UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in November 1999 forced the airline to suspend overseas operations.[22][23] In November 2001 (2001-11), Ariana was grounded completely.[24]
With the Taliban's blessing, Bin Laden effectively had hijacked Ariana, the national civilian airline of Afghanistan. For four years, according to former U.S. aides and exiled Afghan officials, Ariana's passenger and charter flights ferried Islamic militants, arms, cash and opium through the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan. Members of Bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network were provided false Ariana identification that gave them free run of airports in the Middle East.
According to people interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, Viktor Bout's companies helped in running the airline.[26]
Following the overthrow of the Taliban government during Operation Enduring Freedom, Ariana began to rebuild its operations in December 2001 (2001-12).[29][30] About a month later, the UN sanctions were finally lifted, permitting the airline to resume international routes again.[31] In 2002, the government of India gave the carrier a gift of three ex-Air IndiaAirbus A300s.[23][32][33] Ariana's first international passenger flight since 1999 landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport in January 2002 (2002-01),[34] followed by routes to Pakistan and Germany in June and October the same year, respectively.[35][36][37] In 2005, India signed an agreement on aviation cooperation with Afghanistan, with Air India training 50 officials for Ariana.[38]
EU ban
Due to safety regulations, Ariana was mostly banned from flying into European Union airspace in March 2006 (2006-03), with the European Commission allowing the carrier to fly only a single France-registered Airbus A310 into the member states;[39][40] the ban was extended to the entire fleet in October of that year.[41] The ban was confirmed in subsequent updates of the list released in late 2009 and March 2010 (2010-03).[42][43] In November 2010 (2010-11), all Afghanistan-registered aircraft were banned from operating in the European Union.[44][45] Ariana is still included in the list as of May 2024[update].[46]
Taliban takeover
All commercial flights were cancelled following the Taliban taking over the capital city of Kabul in 2021.[47] Domestic flights resumed in September.[48]
Destinations
As of September 2023[update], Ariana Afghan Airlines served five domestic and eight international destinations in Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan, and China; most of the routes radiate from Kabul.[49]
According to Aviation Safety Network, as of October 2012[update] Ariana Afghan Airlines has written off 19 aircraft involved in 13 events, seven of them being deadly. Casualties totaled 154 deaths.[54] The following list includes occurrences that led to at least one fatality, resulted in a write-off of the aircraft involved, or both.
Crashed on approach to London Gatwick Airport when attempting to land in dense fog as it descended below the glideslope. Forty-eight people were killed on the plane, as well as two on the ground. The aircraft was completing an international scheduled Kabul–Kandahar–Beirut–Istanbul–Frankfurt–London passenger service as Flight 701.
Crashed into a hill when attempting to land at Zabol Airport following an in-flight opening of the ramp door. The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled Kabul–Zaranj passenger service.
The aircraft was completing a domestic scheduled Kabul–Jalalabad passenger service when it apparently ran out of fuel, crashing on approach to Jalalabad Airport.
Crashed in bad weather into mountainous terrain on approach to Kabul Airport. It was completing the last leg of an international non-scheduled Sharjah–Kabul–Kandahar passenger service.
^"Contact Us – Our Offices". Ariana Afghan Airlines. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2012. "P.O. Box 76, Kabul, Afghanistan"
^"Brevities". Flight: 27. 1 July 1960. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. US sources say that of about £1.7 million US aid to Afghanistan, £1.1 million went into the airline.
^ ab"Air transport". Flight International: 1262. 20 October 1979. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Ariana Afghan Airlines took delivery of its first widebodied airliner, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, on October 5.
^ ab"Market place". Flight International: 5. 23 May 1987. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Afghanistan has bought two Tupolev Tu-154Ms to replace the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s sold in the West after Soviet pressure. Bakhtar Afghan Airlines president Muhammad Fedawi and chief pilot Salaam Nadran took delivery of the aircraft in late April. Bakhtar absorbed Ariana two years ago, and is now the sole Afghan carrier.
^"Market place". Flight International: 6. 24 May 1986. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Bakhtar Airlines, the Afghani flag carrier, has ordered two Tupolev Tu-154s. The carrier has also just taken delivery of two new Antonov An-26 aircraft which will be put into operation soon. Bakhtar currently flies two Boeing 727s, two An-26s, and two An-24s, two Yak-40s and a Twin Otter on 19 domestic and six international routes.
^"Routes". Flightglobal.com. Flight International. 24 September 2002. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2012. Ariana Afghan Airlines has resumed services between Kabul and Frankfurt, via Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and Istanbul, after a break of 20 years. It has also selected Sharjah as its hub for Middle Eastern and European operations.
