government of Afghanistan government of Afghanistan
Ariana Afghan Airlines was owned by whom from 1955 to 1957?
Ariana Afghan Airlines Ariana Afghan Airlines Co . Ltd . ( ; ) , also known simply as Ariana , is the largest airline of Afghanistan and serves as the countrys national carrier . Founded in 1955 , Ariana is the oldest airline of Afghanistan . The company has its main base at Kabul International Airport , from where it operates domestically , and also provides international connections that link Afghanistan with India , Russia , Saudi Arabia , Turkey and the United Arab Emirates . The carrier is headquartered in Shāre Naw , Kabul , and it is wholly owned by the Afghan government . Ariana Afghan Airlines has been on the list of air carriers banned in the European Union . History . Early years . The airline was set up on 27 January 1955 . It was established as Aryana Airlines with the assistance of Indamer Co . Ltd. , which initially held a 49% interest , and the government of Afghanistan owned the balance . At the beginning , services were operated to Bahrain , India , Iran , and Lebanon , with a fleet of three Douglas DC-3s . In 1957 , Pan American World Airways became the minor shareholder of the airline when it took over the 49% interest from Indamer . Domestic scheduled services started the same year . By , a fleet of three DC-3s was being used for linking Kabul with Amritsar , Delhi , Jeddah , and Karachi , as well as with some points within Afghanistan , while a single DC-4 operated the Kabul–Kandahar–Tehran–Damascus–Beirut–Ankara–Prague–Frankfurt service , so-called Marco Polo route . In the early 1960s , from US aid to Afghanistan was used to capitalise the company . By , the airline had 650 employees . At this time , the fleet comprised one Boeing 727-100C , one CV-440 , one DC-3 and two Douglas DC-6s that worked on routes serving the Middle East , India , Pakistan , the USSR , and Istanbul , Frankfurt and London . Domestic services were then operated by Bakhtar Alwatana , which was established by the government in 1967 for this purpose . The carriers first widebody aircraft , a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 , entered the fleet in early . By , the aircraft fleet consisted of the DC-10 and two Boeing 727-100Cs . In the mid-1980s , during the Soviet–Afghan War , the carrier was forced to sell the DC-10 to British Caledonian , as the Soviets wanted the carrier to fly the Tupolev Tu-154 as a replacement . In , Ariana was taken over by Bakhtar Afghan Airlines , which became the countrys new national airline . In 1986 , Bakhtar ordered two Tupolev Tu-154Ms ; the airline took possession of these aircraft in . In , Bakhtar was merged back into Ariana , thus creating an airline which could serve both short and long haul routes . Taliban era . After the end of the Soviet war in 1989 and collapse of Najibullahs government , the Taliban took over Kabul in 1996 . Afghanistan faced substantial economic sanctions from the international sector during the Taliban regime . The sanctions , along with the Taliban governments control of the company and the grounding of many of the carriers international flights , had a devastating effect on the economic health of the company through the 1990s . The fleet was reduced to only a handful of Russian and Ukrainian built An-26s , Yakovlev Yak-40s and three Boeing 727s , which were used on the longest domestic routes . In October 1996 , Pakistan provided a temporary maintenance and operational base at Karachi . With no overseas assets , by 1999 Arianas international operations consisted of flights to Dubai only ; also , limited cargo flights continued into Chinas western provinces . However , sanctions imposed by UN Security Council Resolution 1267 forced the airline to suspend overseas operations . In , Ariana was grounded completely . According to the Los Angeles Times : According to people interviewed by the Los Angeles Times , Viktor Bouts companies helped in running the airline . Post-Taliban era . Following the overthrow of the Taliban government during Operation Enduring Freedom , Ariana began to rebuild its operations in . About a month later , the UN sanctions were finally lifted , permitting the airline to resume international routes again . In 2002 , the government of India gave the carrier a gift of three ex-Air India Airbus A300s . Arianas first international passenger flight since 1999 landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport in , followed by routes to Pakistan and Germany in June and October the same year , respectively . In 2005 , India signed an agreement on aviation cooperation with Afghanistan , with Air India training 50 officials for Ariana . EU ban . Due to safety regulations , Ariana was mostly banned from flying into European Union airspace in , with the European Commission allowing the carrier to fly only a single France-registered Airbus A310 into the member states ; the ban was extended to the entire fleet in October of that year . The ban was confirmed in subsequent updates of the list released in late 2009 and . In , all Afghanistan-registered aircraft were banned from operating in the European Union . Ariana was still included in subsequent updates of the list , released in , , , , , , , , June 2016 , and December 2016 . Destinations . , Ariana Afghan Airlines serves three domestic and seven international destinations in Russia , Turkey , Saudi Arabia , Kuwait , the United Arab Emirates and India ; most of the routes radiate from Kabul . Fleet . Current fleet . the Ariana Afghan Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft : Historical fleet . Ariana operated the following equipment all through its history : - Airbus A300B4 - Airbus A310-200 - Airbus A320-200 - Airbus A321-100 - Antonov An-12BP - Antonov An-12T - Antonov An-24 - Antonov An-24B - Antonov An-24RV - Antonov An-26 - Antonov An-26B - Boeing 707-120B - Boeing 707-320C - Boeing 720B - Boeing 727-100C - Boeing 727-200 - Boeing 727-200F - Boeing 737-300 - Boeing 737-800 - Boeing 747-200B - Boeing 757-200 - Convair CV-440 - Douglas C-47 - Douglas C-47A - Douglas C-54B - Douglas C-54G - Douglas DC-4 - Douglas DC-6A - McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 - Tupolev Tu-134 - Tupolev Tu-154B - Tupolev Tu-154M - Yakovlev Yak-40 Accidents and incidents . According to Aviation Safety Network , Ariana Afghan Airlines has written off 19 aircraft involved in 13 events , seven of them being deadly . Casualties totaled 154 deaths . The following list includes occurrences that led to at least one fatality , resulted in a write-off of the aircraft involved , or both .