Tunisair Express

Tunisair Express (French: Société des Lignes Intérieures et Internationales, Arabic: الخطوط التونسية السريعة‎) is an airline based in Tunis, Tunisia that was founded on 1 August 1991. Formerly known as Tuninter (Arabic: الخطوط الدولية‎) and SevenAir (Arabic: طيران السابع‎), its parent company is the national carrier Tunisair. It operates to destinations within Tunisia as well as some services to Italy, France, and Malta.

Tunisair Express
IATA ICAO Callsign
UG TUX TUNEXPRESS
Founded1991
HubsTunis-Carthage International Airport
Fleet size5
Destinations12
Parent companyTunisair
HeadquartersTunis, Tunisia
Key peopleMoncef Zouari, General Manager
Websitetunisairexpress.com.tn

History

From its founding in 1990 until 2000, Tunisair Express was known in French as Tuninter, and bore the Arabic name "Domestic Airline" (الخطوط الداخلية). Initially limited to domestic routes (it is still the only airline to fly internally within Tunisia), Tuninter, as it was then known, obtained permission to begin international operations in 2000. In honor of the date on which it opened its first international routes (7/7/2000), the airline was renamed "SevenAir" (Compagnie Aérienne Sevenair Tunisie, طيران السابع). SevenAir was owned by a relative of the wife of the former President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, and was renamed TunisAir Express following Ben Ali's departure from Tunisia on 14 January 2011.[1] Tunisair Express transported a total of six million passengers between 1992 and 2008, carrying 300,000 passengers in 2008 alone.

In December 2015, it has been announced that Tunisair Express will be merged into Tunisair in the foreseeable future to achieve a better profitability.[2]

Destinations
A former Tuninter ATR-72 now operated by Tunisair Express
A former Sevenair Bombardier CRJ-900 now operated by Tunisair Express

As of June 2015, Tunisair Express operates scheduled passenger flights to the following destinations:[3]

City Country Airport Notes
DjerbaTunisiaDjerba–Zarzis International Airport
GabèsTunisiaGabès – Matmata International Airport
GafsaTunisiaGafsa – Ksar International Airport
MaltaMaltaMalta International Airport
MonastirTunisiaMonastir Habib Bourguiba International Airport
NaplesItalyNaples International Airport
PalermoItalyPalermo International Airport
SfaxTunisiaSfax–Thyna International Airport
TabarkaTunisiaTabarka-Ain Draham International Airport
TozeurTunisiaTozeur–Nefta International Airport
TunisTunisiaTunis-Carthage International AirportHub

Fleet

As of January 2020, the Tunisair Express fleet consists of the following aircraft:[4]

Tunisair Express Fleet
Aircraft In service Orders Passengers Notes
ATR 72-500 2 — 70
ATR 72-600 2 1[5] 72
Total 4 1

Accidents and incidents
  • 6 August 2005, Tuninter Flight 1153: a Tuninter ATR-72 crash-landed in the sea 18 miles off Palermo, Sicily while on a flight from the Italian town of Bari to Djerba in Tunisia. The aircraft was carrying 39 passengers and crew, 16 of whom died. Officials at Bari airport reported that most of the passengers were Italian tourists. The fuel indicator was reading incorrectly because it was designed to be fitted only in a smaller plane: the ATR42. Therefore, the crew did not detect that the aircraft was running low on fuel. The turboprop suffered fuel exhaustion and the ATR72 ditched off the Sicilian coast. The airline was banned from flying into Italy for almost two years.[6]

References
  1. (in French) « Sevenair devient officiellement Tunisair Express », Business News, 8 mars 2011
  2. ch-aviation.com - Tunisair Express to be merged into Tunisair 14 December 2015
  3. "Our network". Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  4. "Tunisair Express Fleet Details and History". Planespotters.net. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  5. "Tunisair Express acquires three ATR 72-600 aircraft". aviation24.be. 5 September 2019.
  6. John Hooper. "Tunisian pilot who prayed as his plane went down jailed in Italy". the Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2015.

Media related to Tunisair Express at Wikimedia Commons


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