SOMALI AIRLINES -SUDAN AIRWAYS -VICKERS VISCOUNT OPERATIONS

SOMALI AIRLINES

The company was established in 1963 as joint venture between the Somali government and Alitalia providing managerial and technical experience . First flight was made on July 7 1964 with between Mogadishu and Hargeisa  with DC3 donated by the US government.
Previously all international services were performed by international companies : United Arab Airlines, Aden Airways and ALITALIA to name a few and domestic services were operated by Aden Airways . From Aden Airways timetable dated April 4, 1963, the following services were operated :
1-ADEN-HARGEISA-MOGASDISHU : 2  x week
2-ADEN-BERBERA-BURAO : 1  x week

A fleet of Vickers Viscount was acquired from ALITALIA (see table below)

 
 and were put to regional services to Nairobi and Dar-es-Salam . With the introduction of the Boeing 720, The airline's viscount were relegated to domestic sectors  and by 1974, the operations consisted of a weekly flight  : Mogadishu-Hargeisa and Aden-Hargeisa.

 

SOMALI AIRLINES VICKERS VISCOUNT 785D 60-AAK -Groves/wikimedia.commons.org through a GDL1.2 license.

 
Misshapes
60-AAJ crashed on June 6, 1970 while on approach to Mogadishu after an uncontrolled fire erupted beneath the floor at row 6  . The crash claimed the life of 5 children out of the 30 occupants of the aircraft. 

SUDAN AIRWAYS

Rare photo of Sudan Airways ST-AAN at Gatwick early sixties-Private collection

Egypt and the British government recognized the independence of the country on January 1, 1956. The civilian government did not last very long and a bloodless coup d'état took over the power in 1958. It was under the leadership of of the supreme armed force council that the decision to expand the operations of the company internationally.
To this effect and in concert with British United Airways ( the successor of Airworks) , a vickers viscount series 831 was leased from the company in June 1959.

FS IMAGE OF VICKERS VISCOUNT ST-AAN  SUDAN AIRWAYS (flyaway)

FS IMAGE OF VICKERS VISCOUNT ST-AAN  SUDAN AIRWAYS

ST-AAN went  directly into services operating the "Blue Nile services"to London via Cairo, Athens  and Rome. The new viscount allowed the extension of services to Beirut and Asmara
The timetable dated November 1 1960  shows the following services 

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source www.timetableimages.com/Bjorn Larsson collection

SD 110 : KHARTOUM-CAIRO-ATHENS-ROME-LONDON 1 x week
SD 102 : KHARTOUM-CAIRO-BEIRUT 1x week
SD 100 : KHARTOUM-CAIRO 1 x week
SD 222:  KHARTOUM-ASMARA 1 x week

In early 1961 following the award to the company "Impresit" for the construction of the dam at Er-Roseires near the Ethiopian frontier resulted in increased demand and thus traffic to Sudan, therefore, frequency on the KHARTOUM-LONDON was doubled at 2 x week and the service to ASMARA was extended to Aden. (see map below) 

Sudan Airways vickers viscount operations winter 1961/62

Following the success of the vickers viscount operations, the company turned to jet aircraft to further develop its network , the company chose the Comet as it was the best fitted for the thin traffic flow experienced in Africa and Middle East helped definitely by the fact that other 3 Arab companies counted the comet among their fleet : United Arab Airways, Middle East Airlines and Kuwait Airways. The availability of frames by De Havilland as the result of the canceling of order by MEXICANA allowed Sudan Airways to get delivery of their Comet in late 1962 ending the vickers viscount services which single aircraft was returned to B.U.A on December 23, 1962.


Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.