Pamir Airways was a privately owned

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

headquartered in

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

,Pamir Airways entry at airlineupdate.com
/ref> operating scheduled passenger flights out of Kabul International Airport. The company name is derived from the

Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...

and translates "roof of the world".

History

As the first private airline in Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover, Pamir Airways was issued an Air Operator's Certificate in 1994 by the authorities then in charge of civil aviation in the

Islamic State of Afghanistan The Islamic State of Afghanistan was established by the Peshawar Accords of 26 April 1992. Many Afghan mujahideen parties participated in its creation, after the fall of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, socialist government. Its power was ...

. Flight operations were launched in 1995 with an initial fleet of one Boeing 707-300 and two Antonov An-12 aircraft. In April 2008, Pamir Airways was taken over by a group of Afghan businessmen led by Sherkhan Farnood, the president of th
Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce & Industries
and former chairman of Kabul Bank, who subsequently became chairman of the airline. Following the investment, Pamir Airways received a loan for $98 million from Kabul Bank, which was later exposed as one having indescribably poor lending standards (e.g. little to no interest required, no collateral required and repayment essentially optional). An effort was made to re-organize the Pamir assets, including its aging fleet of grounded planes, which could not be sold at high enough prices to reclaim the funds, though. As a consequence, the license of the airline was withdrawn, officially due to the poor safety record, on 19 March 2011.

Destinations

Upon closure, Pamir Airways operated scheduled services to the following destinations: During the

Hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

season, Pamir Airways played a major role in taking Afghan pilgrims to Saudi Arabia (9,000 in 2004 and 15,000 in 2005).

Fleet

Over the years, Pamir Airways operated the following aircraft types:

Incidents and accidents

*On 17 May 2010, Pamir Airways Flight 112, an Antonov An-24, crashed into Salang Pass, 100 km north of Kabul, killing all 39 passengers and 5 crew. The plane was en route from Kunduz Airport to

, when it suddenly disappeared from radar.Afghan passenger flight reported missing
/ref>

References

External links

Official website
{{Airlines of Afghanistan Defunct airlines of Afghanistan Airlines established in 1994 Airlines disestablished in 2011 Airlines formerly banned in the European Union 1994 establishments in Afghanistan 2010s disestablishments in Afghanistan