Alyemda

Alyemda was founded as the national airline of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen by presidential decree on 11 March 1971 (1971-03-11). At March 1972, the workforce was 600. At this time the fleet consisted of three DC-3s, a single DC-6A/B and three DC-6Bs. By the mid-1970s Alyemda acquired a fleet of Boeing 707/720 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 joined the fleet by the mid-1980s and later the Airbus A310-304 jetliner in 1993. Following the unification of Yemen 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, Addis Ababa, Al Ghaydah, Ataq, Beihan, Bombay, Budapest, Cairo, Damascus, Djibouti, Doha, Jeddah, Kuwait, Larnaca, Mogadishu, Mukeiras, Riyan, Sanaa, Seiyun and Sharjah. 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, one Antonov An-26, one Antonov An-12, two Boeing 737-200s, one leased Boeing 727, two Boeing 707-300Cs and one Douglas DC-6, and the network included services to Abu Dhabi, Al Ghaydah, Ataq, Bombay, Cairo, Djibouti, Doha, Riyan/Mukalla, Sanaa and Sharjah.

On 11 February 1996, Alyemda merged into Yemenia to create a single national airline for Yemen.

Over the years of its existence, Alyemda operated the following aircraft types:

Airbus A310-304

Boeing 707

Boeing 720

Accidents and incidents

On 22 August 1972, an Alyemda Douglas DC-6 was hijacked by three passengers during a scheduled flight from Beirut, Lebanon, to Cairo, Egypt, in an act of demonstration for a unification of North Yemen and South Yemen. The pilots were forced to have a fuel stop at Nicosia, Cyprus, and continued to Benghazi, Libya, 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 Douglas DC-3 (registered 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 (registered 7O-ABF) crashed into the Red Sea shortly after take-off from Aden International Airport. 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, an Alyemda Boeing 707-300 cargo aircraft (registered 7O-ACJ) carrying weapons from Libya to Lebanon was attacked by an unidentified fighter aircraft upon approaching Damascus International Airport. The pilots managed to safely land the plane, even though it had received substantial damage.

On 9 May 1982, an Alyemda de Havilland Canada Dash 7 (registered 7O-ACK) crashed into the sea upon approaching Aden International Airport following a scheduled flight from Mukalla. 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 Boeing 707 during a flight from Aden to Kuwait City, and forced the pilots to divert to Djibouti City. At Djibouti Airport, the perpetrators surrendered.