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| Founded | 1962 | |||
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| Ceased operations | 2007 | |||
| Hubs | Nouakchott International Airport | |||
| Focus cities | Nouadhibou | |||
| Fleet size | 5 | |||
| Destinations | 10 | |||
| Headquarters | Nouakchott, Mauritania | |||
| Website | airmauritanie.mr | |||
Air Mauritanie was an airline based in Nouakchott, Mauritania.[1] It was the national airline and operated domestic and regional services. A VIP-configured Boeing 727-200 was flown for the Mauritanian government. Its main base was Nouakchott International Airport.[2]
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Air Mauritanie was established in September 1962 and started operations in October 1962. It took over the limited regional services previously flown by Air France and UAT-Airmaritime. With the help of Spantax, a Spanish airline, Air Mauritanie started services in 1963 using Fokker F27 aircraft. Also the company operated at least on DC3 and one DC4. The 1980s saw international routes to Las Palmas and Dakar added. In 1983 Fokker F28 jets were added to the fleet and in 1996 ATR 42 aircraft were purchased. Since then Boeing 737s have been introduced. As of June 2005, Air Mauritanie is was prohibited from flying into the United Kingdom, because of evidence that they are not receiving adequate regulatory oversight from their national aviation authority.
The new Mauritanian transition Government in August 2005 started looking for a strategic partner for the heavily indebted company, which is owned by the Mauritanian government (11%), Bollore, Elf Oil and Mauritanian Bank. It was reported in August 2006 that Royal Air Maroc was to take a 51% stake in the airline and to effectively take over its management. Air Mauritanie had 235 employees as of March 2007.[2]
In October 2007, however, the airline was liquidated after it was unable to pay the leases on two of its aircraft, which were repossessed by leasing company ILFC.[3] The government of Mauritania has now established a new airline, Mauritania Airways, in conjunction with Royal Air Maroc and a local company.[4]
On February 15, 2007, a Boeing 737-700 on a flight from Nouakchott to Las Palmas in the Spanish Canary Islands was hijacked by Mohamed Abderraman, who was allegedly seeking political asylum in France. Spain has identified him as a Mauritanian, while Mauritania says that he is a Moroccan from the Western Sahara[5] The aircraft had 71 passengers and 8 crew on board.[6]
While explaining to Abderraman that the plane did not have enough fuel to reach France, the captain, Ahmedou Mohamed Lemine, discovered Abderraman did not speak French. When the Moroccan government denied the plane's request to land and refuel at Dakhla in the Western Sahara, the pilot decided to continue on to Las Palmas as planned. Afterwards the captain spoke to the first officer Satvinder Virk who was travelling as safety pilot in French, warning him that upon landing he was going to brake hard, to throw the hijacker off balance and give the crew a chance to overpower him. On landing, the captain did so, and the hijacker fell to the floor, dropping one of his pistols. First officer Virk and steward Thiam (entering first and immobilising the hijacker) poured boiling water from the coffee machine on him and beat him until they considered him sufficiently subdued. The hijacker was tied with life-jacket straps and handed over to the Guardia Civil.[7] About twenty passengers were slightly injured when evacuating from the port aft escape slide.[5]
Air Mauritanie operated the following services at February 2007: