Jubba Airways returns to international routes with a water salute at Aden Adde

MOGADISHU (SONNA): Jubba Airways has resumed international flights, with its first aircraft received at Aden Adde International Airport under a water salute from the airport fire service, the traditional welcome given to an inaugural or returning service.

The airline returns to routes connecting Somalia with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya, and is restarting its domestic services at the same time. It begins with two large aircraft and two of mid-size.

Speaking on behalf of the Chairman, Muhyadin Ali said the company has come back stronger than it was before in its management, its budget and its standing, and set out the plan for the resumed operation.

The Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Mohamed Farah Nuh, formally opened the resumption. He commended the company’s long record and its work, and said Somalis have needed an increase in the number and the quality of the international flights connecting the country to the world.

That is the second time in under three weeks that the Minister has marked an expansion of Somalia’s international air links. On 31 August he opened the first SalamAir service between Mogadishu and Muscat, restoring a direct connection with Oman after more than three decades, and said then that around ten airlines now serve the country with others expected to follow.

What the two have in common is the calculation behind them. Airlines schedule destinations when they judge that enough people will pay to fly a route to cover the cost of flying it, and that the airport at the far end can handle the aircraft safely. A Somali carrier returning to five international destinations is making that judgement about its own market, and doing so with four aircraft rather than one.

Ministers and members of both houses of parliament attended the event, and several used it to put a request to the company. Jubba Airways, they said, is a national company that worked through the country’s most difficult years and has taken a substantial part in its development, and it should consider reduced fares for Somali students and teachers. They welcomed the part the airline plays in connecting trade and expressed confidence in the wider development of Somali civil aviation.

Aden Adde has been rebuilding its schedule over the past decade, and the return of a Somali carrier to international routes adds to a recovery in which the number of airlines serving the country has climbed steadily.

The Ministry has said it expects further carriers, including from larger countries, and that agreements with airlines already operating in Somalia will be renewed.