Tunisair

Société Tunisienne de l'Air, or Tunisair (Arabic: الخطوط التونسية‎) is the flag carrier airline of Tunisia. Formed in 1948, it operates scheduled international services to European, African and Middle Eastern destinations. Its main base is Tunis-Carthage International Airport. The airline's head office is in Tunis, near Tunis Airport.^[1]

Tunisair is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.

History

In 1948, the Tunisian government reached an agreement with Air France and Tunisair was created. It started operations in 1949. By 1957, the number of shares held by Air France were decreased and the Tunisian government became the largest shareholder in Tunisair. In its early years of operation, the title used on its aircraft was Tunis Air.

The first aircraft type to be operated was the twin-engined Douglas DC-3 and this was followed from 1954 by the larger four-engined Douglas DC-4, which was used on services to Paris.

The first jet-powered equipment was added in 1961 when the twin-engined Sud Caravelle was introduced to the fleet. The first of Tunisair's higher capacity Boeing 727 tri-jets was delivered in February 1972.

By 1990, 2 Airbus A320 aircraft were added to its fleet. During 1993-1998, Tunisair began to expand its services across Europe by starting flights to Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Bratislava, Lisbon, Linz, Salzburg, Graz, Moscow, Beirut and Stockholm. Only Beirut and Stockholm are served by regular scheduled flights, Lisbon is seasonal. The rest are served by charter flights. The Moscow flight has been discontinued, even in charter.

On 21 October 1998, Tunisair celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its creation, and beginning to retire their Boeing 727s.

In 1999, Tunisair and Air France signed an agreement to form an alliance. That agreement was set to end on 4 January 2010.

Destinations

Tunisair flies to destinations across Africa, Asia and Europe. Its main base is Tunis-Carthage International Airport.

Fleet

The Tunisair fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of 9 November 2011):^[2]

Fleet details

As of June 2011, the average age of the Tunisair fleet is 11.7 years.^[3]

On 15 July 2008, Airbus announced that Tunisair had placed a firm order for 16 aircraft (10 A320-200s, 3 A330-200s and 3 A350-800s) for fleet renewal and expansion in a deal valued at $1.6 billion.^[4]

1970

Head office

Tunisair's head office is located on Route X near Tunis-Carthage Airport in Tunis.^[6] When the company first started in 1948, its head office was at 1 Rue d'Athènes in Tunis.^[7] In August 1972 the airline moved to 113 Avenue de la Liberté to accommodate the employees of Tunisair's main departments.^[8] In November 1991 the airline moved to its current head office.^[9]

References

External links

• Official website
• Tunisair quotes on the Tunis Stock Exchange