Tunisair Express (French: Société des Lignes Intérieures et Internationales, Arabic: الخطوط التونسية السريعة) is an airline based in Tunis, Tunisia that was founded on 1 August 1991. Formerly known as Tuninter (Arabic: الخطوط الدولية) and SevenAir (Arabic: طيران السابع), its parent company is the national carrier Tunisair. It operates to destinations within Tunisia as well as some services to Italy, France, and Malta.
History
From its founding in 1990 until 2000, Tunisair Express was known in French as Tuninter, and bore the Arabic name "Domestic Airline" (الخطوط الداخلية). Initially limited to domestic routes (it is still the only airline to fly internally within Tunisia), Tuninter, as it was then known, obtained permission to begin international operations in 2000. On 7 July 2007 (7/7/7), the airline was renamed "SevenAir" (Compagnie Aérienne Sevenair Tunisie, طيران السابع). SevenAir was owned by a relative of the wife of the then-President of Tunisia, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, and was renamed TunisAir Express following Ben Ali's departure from Tunisia on 14 January 2011.[1] Tunisair Express transported a total of six million passengers between 1992 and 2008, carrying 300,000 passengers in 2008 alone.
In December 2015, it was announced that Tunisair Express would be merged into Tunisair in the foreseeable future to achieve a better profitability.[2]
In August 2024, the CEO of Tunisair, Khaled Chelli, along with the head of its internal union, Najmeddine Mzoughi were arrested as part of an investigation that began on corruption charges.[3] Montacer Bnouni was appointed as Director General of Tunisair Express on Juin 2024.[4]
Destinations
A former Tuninter ATR-72 now operated by Tunisair ExpressA former Sevenair Bombardier CRJ-900 now operated by Tunisair Express
As of November 2024[update], Tunisair Express operates scheduled passenger flights to the following destinations:[5]
6 August 2005, Tuninter Flight 1153: a Tuninter ATR-72crash-landed in the sea 18 miles off Palermo, Sicily while on a flight from the Italian town of Bari to Djerba in Tunisia. The aircraft was carrying 39 passengers and crew, 16 of whom died. Officials at Bari airport reported that most of the passengers were Italian tourists. The fuel indicator was reading incorrectly because it was designed to be fitted only in a smaller plane: the ATR 42. Therefore, the crew did not detect that the aircraft was running low on fuel. The turboprop suffered fuel exhaustion and the ATR 72 ditched off the Sicilian coast. The airline was banned from flying into Italy for almost two years.[7]
