New Somali airline launched

A group of Somali businessmen has launched a new airline. The airline, known as Air Somalia, is the first private airline owned entirely by Somalis. Mukhatar Hamid Hassan, the Mogadishu station manager of the airline told IRIN that it was owned by a group of businessmen who represented various clans. "It is a true Somali venture" Mukhatar said. Although charter flights have operated from Balidogle airport, 90 km south of Mogadishu, since the collapse of the government in 1991, Air Somalia is the first airline to be headquartered there. To become full partners in the venture, 15 businessmen paid US $50,000 each, giving the start-up US $750,000 to purchase the aircraft, company chairman Ali Farah Abdullah told Associated Press (AP). The airline has a 165-seat Russian built Tupulov 154 jet - to be used for international flights - and two Antonovs, capable of carrying about 40 passengers for domestic flights. The airline started international flights on 14 February, flying Mogadishu-Djibouti-United Arab Emirates on a twice weekly basis, Mukhatar told IRIN. Local flights are planned to start on 21 February, and will involve 10 towns throughout Somalia. These will be Hargeisa, Burao and Borama, in the self-declared state of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia; Bosaso, Garowe, Galkayo in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia; and Kismayo, Baidoa, Beletwein, and Bardhere, in south and central Somalia. Mukhatar said the airline was "in business not in politics... this will further the reconciliation process". He appealed to international organizations, particularly the UN to make use of the airline, promising cheaper rates and more efficiency with destinations. "We will be able to take them (international organisations) from Ras-Kamboni, in the South, to Ras-Asser in the north", he said. All international Civil Aviation Organisation rules and regulations would be complied with, Mukhatar said.