Tassili Airlines (Arabic: طيران الطاسيلي) is an Algerian passenger airline, based in Algiers, owned by Sonatrach, the national state-owned oil company of Algeria.
Founded in 1998, Tassili now provides scheduled services out of Houari Boumedienne Airport, as well as its charter flights and helicopter services, that were originally mainly for the Algerian oil industry.[2]
History
Tassili Airlines was originally established in 1998 as a joint venture between Air Algérie (49%) and the Sonatrach company (51%), both of which are government-owned. Commercial services were launched on 8 April 1999, with a flight from Hassi Messaoud to Algiers.
In April 2005, Air Algérie has sold 25% of its shares in the airlines, Sonatrach thus becoming the majority shareholder.
Tassili Airlines became a member of AFRAA in 2014,[3] since when it has continued its expansion of regional and international routes.
Corporate affairs
Ownership
The airline is state-owned, being 76% owned by Sonatrach and 24% owned by Air Algérie.
Business trends
The annual accounts of the state-owned Tassili Airlines do not seem to have been published. A few recently available figures (largely from AFRAA reports) are shown below (for years ending 31 December):
On 28 January 2004, at around 21:00 local time, a Tassili Airlines Beechcraft 1900 (registered 7T-VIN) crashed 10 kilometres short of Ghardaïa Airport where it had been scheduled to land completing a chartered flight from Hassi R'Mel Airport. The pilot Mebarki Mohamed had to abort the landing approach because a preceding aircraft had not cleared the runway in time. During maneuvering for reaching the approach path again, the aircraft hit the ground with its right wing, which was subsequently torn off. Of the two passengers and three crew members on board, all but the co-pilot survived the crash.[15]
On 10 August 2017, a Tassili Airlines Bell 206 was destroyed by impact and post-impact fire when it crashed on an empty lot at Dekakna, about 5 km southwest of Douera, Algeria. All four on board are believed to have died in the accident. The accident happened in daylight (1020L) and apparently in VMC. According to press reports the helicopter was being used to film the new railway line between Zeralda and Algiers.[16]
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