> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.thecontrail.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Somalia Is Trying to Bring Back Its National Airline After 35 Years - URL: https://www.thecontrail.org/somali-airlines-revival-delays/ - Published: 2026-09-26T10:00:09.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-26T10:00:08.000Z - Description: Somali Airlines once flew to London, Rome and Frankfurt. It stopped in 1991, and the government has now missed three separate deadlines to put it back in the air. - Author: Gomolemo Mokonyane - Tags: News, Somali Airlines Somalia's national carrier has been grounded since 1991, and the government has spent the last two years trying to change that. Somali Airlines was supposed to fly again in 2024\. Then late 2025\. After that, September 2026\. All three dates have now passed with no aircraft in the air. Government effort here is real, and so are the obstacles. Understanding why a country can buy airplanes and still not have an airline says a lot about how commercial aviation actually works. --- ## The White Star Airline The airline was founded in 1964, four years after independence, as a joint venture between the Somali government and Alitalia. Each side held half, which mattered because Alitalia brought the technical and administrative expertise a brand-new carrier didn't have. Flights operated out of Mogadishu International Airport, with Hargeisa as a second base, and it grew quickly enough that the government eventually bought out Alitalia's stake and took full ownership. At its peak it was a serious operator. Regional routes kept the country connected. Long-haul flights reached London, Rome, Frankfurt and Cairo. That put it among the few African carriers serving Europe directly at the time. Everything changed when the central government collapsed. Civil war disrupted operations through the late 1980s, and the airline's flights stopped in the first week of January 1991\. They never resumed. --- ## What the Government Has Bought Revival efforts began properly in 2024, when the Somali Civil Aviation Authority said it had the regulatory framework in place to certify an airline and license crews. In July 2025, Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Farah Nuh announced the government had acquired two Airbus A320-200s from a company reported as Lima Holding Group, structured as a lease that could convert to full purchase. Abdulahi Iman was appointed chief executive around the same time. Officials said at the time that flights would begin within a few months, and talked about adding two or three more aircraft later. By August 2026, the civil aviation authority said preparations were complete and flights would start in mid-September. That month has now come and gone. --- ## Why Buying Planes Isn't the Hard Part This is where people outside the industry tend to be surprised. Aircraft are the straightforward bit. Everything around them is what takes years. An airline needs an air operator certificate, which regulators only issue after inspecting manuals, procedures and training programs in detail. Pilots and cabin crew have to be trained and certified on the specific aircraft type. There has to be an approved maintenance arrangement, since an A320 requires scheduled work a new airline can't perform itself. Insurance matters too, and insurers price a startup carrier in a country with Somalia's recent history accordingly. Then come ground handling, flight planning and slots at every airport it wants to serve. Any one of those can hold up a launch on its own. This airline is building all of them at once, from nothing, which is why each deadline has slipped rather than been met. Infrastructure is its own problem. Aden Adde International Airport has served Mogadishu for decades and needs serious modernization. The government has outlined a $643 million project to build a new international airport in the Mahay area of Warsheekh, about 60 kilometers from the capital, which would eventually replace it. --- ## What It Would Mean for Travelers Mogadishu isn't cut off. Ethiopian Airlines, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines all serve Aden Adde. Anyone flying to Somalia today connects through Addis Ababa, Doha or Istanbul. What's missing is competition and control. Every seat to and from the country is priced by a foreign airline, and domestic connections depend on a patchwork of small private operators. A functioning national carrier would add capacity on regional routes, give the government a say in what gets flown, and cut the number of connections a Somali traveler needs to get home. There's also the part that doesn't show up in a schedule. For a country that has spent 35 years without one, a flag on a tail is a statement about stability, and the minister who announced the aircraft purchase framed it in exactly those terms. --- ## Still on the Ground Ambition here is genuine, and the groundwork is further along than it was two years ago. Regulators have a framework, the aircraft exist, and a chief executive is in post. What's missing is everything that turns those pieces into a working airline, and that part takes longer than any government wants to admit. Would you want to see the white star tail flying again, or is Somalia better served by starting something new?