Alyemda ( - ''al-Yamdā''), internationally known as Democratic Yemen Airlines or just Yemen Airlines, was the

national airline A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by that government for international operations. Histo ...

South Yemen South Yemen, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, abbreviated to Democratic Yemen, was a country in South Arabia that existed in what is now southeast Yemen from 1967 until Yemeni unification, its unification with the Yemen A ...

. It was established at Aden on 11 March 1971 after nationalizing Brothers Air Services (BASCO) which was a private company owned by the Baharoon brothers."North and South Yemen Airlines to Merge." ''Flight International''. 10–16 April 1996
10
It operated a network of flight routes throughout Africa and the Middle East, with its hub at Aden Airport, the former Khormaksar Air Force Base. Its head office was in the Alyemda Building in Khormaksar,

Aden Aden () is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of ...

History

Alyemda was founded as the national airline of the

People's Democratic Republic of Yemen South Yemen, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, abbreviated to Democratic Yemen, was a country in South Arabia that existed in what is now southeast Yemen from 1967 until its unification with the Yemen Arab Republic in 19 ...

by presidential decree on . At March 1972, the workforce was 600. At this time the fleet consisted of three

DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper ...

s, a single

DC-6 The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, Douglas reworked it after the war to compete wi ...

A/B and three DC-6Bs. By the mid-1970s Alyemda acquired a fleet of

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on Decembe ...

/ 720 jetliners. Three brand new Dash 7s turboprop liners were acquired in 1979. On 9 May 1982, one of these aircraft crashed into the sea on approach to Aden Airport. In 1983 Alyemda got its first brand new Boeing 737-200ADV which was mostly used for domestic and regional flights, also the

Tupolev Tu-154 The Tupolev Tu-154 (; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian airlines for several decades, ...

joined the fleet by the mid-1980s and later the Airbus A310-304 jetliner in 1993. Following the

unification of Yemen The Yemeni unification () took place on 22 May 1990, when the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) and the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) united, forming the Republic of Yemen. Background (1918–1990) North Yemen became an ...

in 1990, the airline was renamed first Alyemda Air Yemen in 1992, and later in 1995 Alyemen Airlines of Yemen. By March 1990, Alyemda had 1,207 employees; at that time, the airline operated scheduled passenger and cargo services that radiated from Aden to

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

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Al Ghaydah Al Ghaydah () is the capital city of Al Mahrah Governorate in south-eastern Yemen. It is one of the easternmost cities in the country, located near Yemen's border with Oman. History Civil war Al Ghaydah has been relatively unscathed during ...

Ataq Ataq (), alternately spelled Attaq, is a small city and the capital of Shabwah Governorate in Yemen. Ataq is 458 km south east of Sanaa. The difference in elevation of the city is about 70 m with generally partially flat topography with a ...

Beihan Beihan (), also known as Bayhan al Qisab (), is a town in western Yemen. The town had 13,234 inhabitants as of 2004. It was formerly the capital city of Emirate of Beihan, and today is the capital of Bayhan District in the Shabwah Governorate. ...

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

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Jeddah Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

Larnaca Larnaca, also spelled Larnaka, is a city on the southeast coast of Cyprus and the capital of the Larnaca District, district of the same name. With a district population of 155.000 in 2021, it is the third largest city in the country after Nicosi ...

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, Mukeiras, Riyan,

Sanaa Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...

Seiyun Seiyun (also transliterated as ''Saywun'', ''Sayoun'' or ''Say'un''; Hadhrami pronunciation: , Literary Arabic: ) is a city in the region and Governorate of Hadhramaut in Yemen. It is located in the middle of the Hadhramaut Valley, abo ...

and

Sharjah Sharjah (; ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is the capital of the Emirate of Sharjah and forms part of the D ...

. By April 1995, Abdulla Ali Abdulla held Alyemda's chairman position, and the airline had 1,258 employees. The fleet consisted of one

Airbus A310-300 The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie GIE, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers. Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the A300, the first twin-jet wid ...

, one

Antonov An-26 The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.Gordon, Yefim. Komissarov, Dmitry & Sergey. "Antonov's Turboprop Twins ...

, one

Antonov An-12 The Antonov An-12 ( Russian: Антонов Ан-12; NATO reporting name: Cub) is a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and has many variants. For more than thr ...

, two

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retained the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating ...

s, one leased

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...

, two Boeing 707-300Cs and one

Douglas DC-6 The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, Douglas reworked it after the war to compete ...

, and the network included services to Abu Dhabi, Al Ghaydah, Ataq, Bombay, Cairo, Djibouti, Doha, Riyan/

Mukalla Mukalla, officially the Mukalla City District, is a seaport and the capital city district of Yemen's largest governorate, Hadhramaut Governorate, Hadhramaut. The city is in the South Arabia, southern part of the Arabian Peninsula on the Gulf of A ...

, Sanaa and Sharjah. On 11 February 1996, Alyemda merged into

Yemenia Yemenia () is the flag carrier of Yemen, based in Sanaa. It operates scheduled domestic and international passenger flights to destinations in Africa and the Middle East out of its airline hub, hubs at Aden International Airport, and to a lesser ...

to create a single national airline for Yemen.Information about Alyemda at the Aero Transport Database
/ref>

Fleet details

Over the years of its existence, Alyemda operated the following aircraft types: * Airbus A310-304 *

Boeing 720 The Boeing 720 is a retired American narrow-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Announced in July 1957 as a 707 derivative for shorter flights from shorter runways, the 720 first flew on November 23, 1959. Its type certificate ...

* Boeing 737-200ADV *

de Havilland Canada Dash 7 The de Havilland Canada DHC-7, popularly known as the Dash 7, is a turboprop-powered regional airliner with short take-off and landing (STOL) performance. Variants were built with 50–54 seats. It first flew in 1975 and remained in producti ...

Douglas C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II. During the war the C-47 was used for tro ...

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper ...

Accidents and incidents

*On 22 August 1972, an Alyemda

was hijacked by three passengers during a scheduled flight from

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, in an act of demonstration for a unification of

North Yemen North Yemen () is a term used to describe the Kingdom of Yemen (1918-1962), the Yemen Arab Republic (1962-1990), and the regimes that preceded them and exercised sovereignty over that region of Yemen. Its capital was Sanaa from 1918 to 1948 an ...

and South Yemen. The pilots were forced to have a fuel stop at

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, and continued to

Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

, where the perpetrators surrendered to local police forces, without having injured anyone of the remaining 49 passengers and six crew. *On 16 or 17 September 1975, an Alyemda

(

registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...

7O-ABF) was damaged beyond economic repair in a landing accident at Beihan Airport, following a scheduled flight from Aden. *On 1 March 1977, an Alyemda

Douglas C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II. During the war the C-47 was used for troo ...

(registered 7O-ABF) crashed into the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

shortly after take-off from

Aden International Airport Aden International Airport is an international airport in Aden, Yemen and the oldest airport in the Arabian peninsula. Prior to its use as a civil air facility, the aerodrome was known as RAF Khormaksar, which opened in 1917 and closed as an RA ...

. All 16 passengers and three crew members that had been on the scheduled domestic flight were killed. *On 26 January 1982, five months before the outbreak of the

First Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, also called the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization ...

, an Alyemda Boeing 707-300 cargo aircraft (registered 7O-ACJ) carrying weapons from

was attacked by an unidentified fighter aircraft upon approaching

Damascus International Airport Damascus International Airport () is the international airport of Damascus, the capital of Syria and the home base of the national flag carrier airline, Syrian Air. Damascus International Airport serves as a primary gateway to Syria and is one ...

. The pilots managed to safely land the plane, even though it had received substantial damage. *On 9 May 1982, an Alyemda

(registered 7O-ACK) crashed into the sea upon approaching

following a scheduled flight from

. Of the 45 passengers, 21 lost their lives, as well as two out of the four crew members, making it the worst accident in the history of the airline. *On 20 January 1983, three persons hijacked an Alyemda

during a flight from Aden to

Kuwait City Kuwait City (; ) is the capital and largest city of Kuwait. Located at the heart of the country on the south shore of Kuwait Bay on the Persian Gulf, it is the political, cultural and economic center of the emirate, containing Kuwait's Seif Pal ...

, and forced the pilots to divert to

Djibouti City Djibouti (also called Djibouti City and Jibuti in early Western texts) is the capital city of the Djibouti, Republic of Djibouti. It is located in the coastal Djibouti Region on the Gulf of Tadjoura. Djibouti has a population of around 780,000 ...

. At Djibouti Airport, the perpetrators surrendered. *On 15 August 1985, an Alyemda Boeing 707 (registered 7O-ACO) carrying 65 passengers and 8 crew went temporarily out of control following an

autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of a vehicle without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allow ...

malfunction caused by water spilled on the panel and subsequent pilot error. The aircraft heavily pitched up and down, causing the death of two passengers and one flight attendant. When the pilots managed to resolve the situation, they carried out an emergency landing at Aden Airport, from where the flight had departed. *On 27 August 1993, an Alyemda

was hijacked during a scheduled domestic flight from

by an armed person who demanded to be taken to either

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

. The pilots continued to Al Ghaydah Airport instead, where all passengers could leave, allowing police forces to storm the plane and arrest the perpetrator. *On 14 September 1994, a hijacking attempt occurred on board another Alyemda Boeing 737-200 on a flight from Aden to

Sana'a Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...

.Alyemda 1994 hijacking attempt
/ref>

References

{{airlines of Yemen Airlines established in 1971 Airlines disestablished in 1996 Airlines of South Yemen Defunct airlines of Yemen South Yemeni companies established in 1971