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| Founded | late 1940s (predecessor) 1961 (current AOC) |
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| Hubs | Sana'a International Airport | |||
| Focus cities | Aden International Airport | |||
| Frequent-flyer program | Yemenia Sama Club[1] | |||
| Fleet size | 12 | |||
| Destinations | 24 | |||
| Parent company | Government of Yemen | |||
| Headquarters | Sana'a, Yemen | |||
| Key people | N/A (Chairman and CEO)[2] | |||
| Website | yemenia.com | |||
Yemenia (Arabic: اليمنية), also known as Yemen Airways (Arabic: الخطوط الجوية) is the national airline of Yemen, based in Sana'a. It operates scheduled domestic and international passenger flights to destinations in Africa and the Middle East, as well as to Asia and Europe, out of its hubs at Sana'a International Airport, and (to a lesser extent) Aden International Airport. Yemenia is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.[3]
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Yemenia dates its origins back to Yemen Airlines,[4] a company that was founded in the second half of the 1940s[2] and owned by Ahmad bin Yahya, then King of Yemen.[5]
When the Yemen Arab Republic was proclaimed in 1962, Yemen Airlines was issued a new airline licence on 4 August of that year (which remains valid until today), thus becoming the flag carrier of the country, with its head office in the Ministry of Communication Building in Sana'a.[5] In 1967, the airline entered a co-operation with United Arab Airlines, which lasted until 1972. During that period, it was known as Yemen Arab Airlines.[4]
In July 1972, the Yemen Airways branding was launched, which coincided with the company being nationalized.[4] In 1977, Saudi Arabia acquired a 49 percent stake in the airline. The current name Yemenia was adopted on 1 July 1978.[4]
When South Yemen was united with the Yemen Arab Republic to form today's Yemen in 1990,[6] plans were made to form a single national airline by merging South Yemen's Alyemda into Yemenia. To achieve this, the shares held by Saudi Arabia were bought back by the government of Yemen in 1992.[4] On 11 February 1996, the merger could be completed,[7] which led to a significant part of the employees of the two airlines losing their jobs.[8][9][10]
Since 2008, a number of safety actions by the European Union have been taken against Yemenia because of alleged poor maintenance standards in Yemen. In July 2009, France suspended the airworthiness certificates of two Yemenia Airbus A310 aircraft that were registered in the country.[11] In the same month, the European Aviation Safety Agency withdrew the maintenance approval that had been issued to Yemenia, which forced Yemenia to suspend all flights to Europe (at that time, Paris, London, Rome and Frankfurt were served).
European services were relaunched in December 2009. Since then, systematic inspections of Yemenia aircraft parked at EU airports are carried out, in order to assess and verify the safety standards.[11] On 20 January 2010, then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that, owing to concerns of terrorist activity in Yemen, flights between the UK and the country would be suspended, as long as the security situation would not improve.[12] Over the following months, Yemenia again cut flights to Europe. As of 2011, Frankfurt is the only destination still served.
On 12 June 2001, a fire broke out at the Yemenia headquarters in Sana'a.[13] On 3 June 2011, during the 2011 Yemeni uprising, the building was again set on fire.[14]
As of 2011, Yemenia operates scheduled flights to 24 destinations. The network is enlarged by codeshare flights operated by Felix Airways (domestic) and Gulf Air (via Bahrain).[15]
As of October 2011, the Yemenia commercial passenger fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 11.8 years:[16][17][18]
| Aircraft | In Service | Orders | Passengers | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | J | Y | Total | ||||
| Airbus A310-300 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 18 |
176 195 |
188 213 |
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| Airbus A320-200 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 138 | 150 | The order for a total of 10 aircraft was signed in 2009,[19] deliveries take place since 2011. Fitted with IAE V2500 engines.[20] |
| Airbus A330-200 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 259 | 277 | |
| Airbus A350-800 | 0 | 10[21] | TBA | Entry into service: 2014 | |||
| Bombardier Dash 8-100 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 37 | |
| Total | 10 | 18 | |||||
Additionally, Yemenia operates two VIP-configured aircraft for the government of Yemen: A Boeing 727-200 and a Boeing 747SP.[22][18] Some Ilyushin Il-76 freighters of the Yemeni Air Force are painted in Yemenia colors.
Over the years, the airline has operated the following aircraft types:[4][17]
| Aircraft | Introduced | Retired |
|---|---|---|
| Airbus A310 |
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| Airbus A320 |
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| Airbus A330 |
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| Boeing 720 | ||
| Boeing 727 | ||
| Boeing 737-200 |
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| Boeing 737-800 |
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| Boeing 747SP |
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| Bombardier Dash 8 |
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| de Havilland Canada Dash 7 | ||
| Douglas DC-3 | ||
| Douglas DC-6 | ||
| Ilyushin Il-76 |
The by far worst accident in the history of the company occurred on 30 June 2009, when Yemenia Flight 626 from Sana'a to Moroni, Comoros crashed into the sea shortly before landing. Of the 142 passengers and eleven crew that had been on the Airbus A310-300 with the registration 7O-ADJ,[23], only a 12-year-old girl, Bahia Bakari, was recovered, alive and conscious, although suffering from extreme tiredness and hypothermia, cuts to her face and a fractured collar-bone.[24][25][26][27][28][29][30]
There were a number of further incidents and accidents:
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