Flying in Somalia: the private airlines since 1991

The short version

When Somalia's national airline stopped in 1991, private firms took over. Most are owned by Somalis but registered in Djibouti, Dubai or Nairobi. They fly small and medium-sized planes between Somali towns and to Djibouti, Nairobi, Dubai, Jeddah and Entebbe. Foreign airlines such as Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Qatar Airways and Uganda Airlines also fly to Mogadishu (EUAA, Somalia country focus 2025, citing Ahmed Nur Ali 2024). For the national airline and its planned return, see Somali Airlines.

The airlines

Sources: Wikipedia, Daallo Airlines; Wikipedia, Jubba Airways; Wikipedia, Air Somalia; Wikipedia, African Express Airways; Wikipedia, Maandeeq Air.

• Daallo began in Djibouti in 1991. In March 2000 it had 42 staff and flew to Berbera, Borama, Bosaso, Dire Dawa, Djibouti, Dubai, Hargeisa, Jeddah, Mogadishu and Sharjah. It suspended all flights in March 2010 and resumed later that year (Wikipedia, Daallo Airlines).
• Jubba Airways' first flight in May 1998 was the first direct flight from Sharjah to Mogadishu since 1991. It flies to Mogadishu, Bosaso, Galkayo, Hargeisa, Djibouti and Dubai, and carries Hajj pilgrims (Wikipedia, Jubba Airways).
• In February 2015 Daallo and Jubba formed a joint holding company, African Airways Alliance, while keeping their own names (same sources).
• Air Somalia was the first private airline wholly owned by Somalis. It had one Tupolev Tu-154, delivered in December 2000. Somaliland banned it from its airspace in June 2001, and it stopped all flights in 2002 (Wikipedia, Air Somalia).
• Maandeeq Air started domestic flights in October 2015 and began flying Mogadishu to Nairobi in September 2024, using Fokker 50 and Fokker 70 planes (Wikipedia, Maandeeq Air).
• Other carriers flying inside Somalia include Freedom Airline Express, Salaam Air Express and Halla Airlines (EUAA, citing Ahmed Nur Ali 2024).

Traffic and the airspace

• In 2023 Mogadishu's Aden Adde airport recorded 253,008 arrivals and 233,808 departures (EUAA, citing the Somali National Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract, November 2024).
• Somalia took back control of its own airspace in December 2017 (Voice of America). After new radio navigation equipment in 2023, daily flights through Somali airspace rose from about 220 to about 500 by June 2024 (EUAA, citing Ahmed Nur Ali 2024).
• In February 2023 the IATA ticket settlement system for travel agents restarted in Mogadishu after 33 years (same source).
• Air travel is described as too expensive for most ordinary Somalis (EUAA, citing the Finnish Immigration Service, 2020).

Safety

• On 2 February 2016 a bomb exploded on Daallo Airlines Flight 159 about 20 minutes after it left Mogadishu for Djibouti. The plane returned and landed; the only person killed was the man carrying the bomb, which officials said was hidden in a laptop. Al-Shabaab claimed the attack (Wikipedia, Daallo Airlines Flight 159; VOA, 6 February 2016). In May 2016 a military court convicted 10 people (VOA, 30 May 2016).
• In January 2025 the Somali Civil Aviation Authority issued orders to airlines that had been taking passengers without properly assigned aircraft, after complaints from passengers, and suspended some domestic aircraft until repairs were done. It did not name the airlines (SONNA, 21 January 2025).
• Daallo Airlines is on the European Union's list of airlines banned from its airspace (Wikipedia, Daallo Airlines).

For the accident record of the old national airline, see Somali Airlines.

Sources disagree

• Who was first. Air Somalia is described as the first private airline owned entirely by Somalis, though Daallo, also Somali-owned, began flying ten years earlier from Djibouti (Wikipedia, Air Somalia; Wikipedia, Daallo Airlines).
• Flight 159 timing. Reports put the explosion at about 15 or about 20 minutes after take-off (Wikipedia, Daallo Airlines Flight 159; VOA).
• Air Somalia's ban. Somali media said the Somaliland ban was over the airline's name and the Somali star on its planes; Somaliland's aviation minister, Abdillahi Duale, disputed this (Wikipedia, Air Somalia).