FLUG REVUE July 2003: Ariana on the way to build new business

ARIANA AFGHAN AIRLINES FIGHTS ON

By Dierk Wünsche

The director of flying operations at Ariana Afghan Airlines, H. Abdul Jabar Arifi, rejoices over every passenger and all interest shown in the airline. He rarely gets the opportunity for a talk, as these days Afghanistan and Kabul International Airport are not destinations frequently visited by Europeans. Only now and again do members of international relief organisations, business people or journalists use the single scheduled connection Ariana operates between Frankfurt and Kabul. A lot of people still fly in on aircraft belonging to the organisations concerned, the UN or the military forces stationed on site. “But after many years of occupation and civil war, things are finally looking up for Ariana,” says Arifi optimistically. “We are on the road towards reorganisation. And naturally we are very proud of the fact that we are able to serve international destinations like Frankfurt again. And perhaps some time the tourists will return to our country as well.”

Ariana is flying with a fleet of recently acquired used aircraft. In the course of the American attacks on the Afghan airports commencing on 7 October 2001, Ariana lost six out of the eight aircraft which at that time comprised its fleet. Today the Ariana fleet comprises three Airbus A300 B4's, three Boeing 727-200 Adv. and one Antonov An-24. In the spring of 2003, the airline also leased a Boeing 747 on a short-term contract to boost its seating capacity on the traditional pilgrimage flights to Mecca. The 50-seat Antonov was recently purchased in the Ukraine for $500,000. It is primarily used on domestic routes.

Reconstruction of the airline has proceeded only slowly since the end of hostilities in 2001, beginning with the arrival of another 727 to join the two surviving Boeing 727 jets left over from the period of Taliban rule. These have since even been fitted with GPS satellite navigation. The third 727 was initially chartered and then purchased. Generous aid then materialised from India. As part of the international reconstruction aid for Afghanistan, its neighbour delivered three Airbuses which had previously been operated by Air India and were all about 20 years old. The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is said to have transferred about $10 million to Air India for each of the planes, as Arifi confirms. One A300 B4 was delivered in October 2002, another in December 2002 and a third in March 2003. The jets can accommodate 232 passengers in a two-class configuration (16/216). Their cargo capacity is around nine tonnes. To fly the Airbuses, which initially were crewed by Air India personnel, some Ariana Boeing 727 pilots received training on the new type in India. The Airbuses are maintained in Dubai, whereas all maintenance work on the Boeing 727 fleet (up to the C check) is carried out by Ariana technicians in a hangar at Kabul airport. Peruvian engineers with American FAA licences assist their Afghan colleagues with this work.

The Ariana management wants to increase the numbers of passengers flown. Thus, according to Arifi, the airline is aiming for 200,000 passengers to be handled by its reconstructed fleet in the year 2003. Here the airline would be happy to presume its pre-war route network, which served several European capital cities as well as neighbouring states. International destinations currently flown include Amritsar, New Delhi, Islamabad, Jeddah, Sharjah, Dubai, Teheran and Istanbul. Domestic destinations are restricted to Mazar and Herat. The only European destination at present is Frankfurt. Since 25 September 2002 there has been a weekly service on Wednesdays via Teheran (refuelling stop only) and Istanbul with the A300. If demand picks up, a Sunday flight could be added to the flight schedule. On this point the President of Ariana, Jahed Azimir, was optimistic on the occasion of the opening of the route in Frankfurt.

The airline's shareholders are the Afghan government plus a few private investors. Arifi estimates the Ariana workforce at 1,750 persons, hinting discreetly that the high number is due to the special local political situation. He gives the number of pilots and co-pilots on the Ariana payroll as 57. There is still a shortage of qualified personnel here, so that only two crews are available for three aircraft.

Ariana Afghan Airlines can look back on a chequered history. Originally founded in January 1955, in the very same year the national carrier of Afghanistan was accepted into the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The young airline started out with four Dakotas which an American commercial pilot had brought to Afghanistan from India. Even then the Ariana logo was a flying white swallow on a blue background. The colour blue was supposed to stand for the precious stone lapis lazuli: the high Afghan mountains are the only place in the world where this is found. The logo was also apparently specially designed for the new national airline by the then Shah of Afghanistan.

Two years after its foundation, the airline was converted into a public limited company. It was owned 51 percent by the Afghan government and 49 percent by the American airline Pan American World Airways – the start of a collaboration which was to prove effective for Ariana. The existing fleet of Dakotas was expanded by two DC-4 aircraft. Over 30 PanAm managers and technicians assisted locally with the task of building up of the airline. The aim of the collaboration was to operate Ariana at a profit and to train the Afghans in modern airline management. At the same time passengers were to be offered a reliable and safe product. For this reason, the collaboration also included training and support for the Afghans in both the flying and technical areas. Fleet maintenance and flying operations complied with the American FAA standards.

Whereas initially a majority of the pilots and mechanics of the young airline were still Indians, gradually more and more Afghans became qualified and took over these positions. Between 1970 and 1980 alone 26 Afghan pilots completed training programmes in the USA. Eleven of these qualified as captains, with US airline transport pilot licences. But flight engineers, dispatchers, flight attendants and sales staff were also trained by Pan Am. When the partnership was terminated in 1985, Ariana's workforce stood at 650, of whom 630 were Afghans.

The aircraft types in the Ariana fleet also changed over time. DC-6A/B, Convair 340/440 and Boeing 727-100C were all in service with Ariana. To this day Ariana is especially proud of having been the first airline in the region to employ the jets. In the 1970s, Ariana featured in the top ten airlines in the world as regards security. By the end of the 1970s Ariana's Boeing 727 fleet was flying twice weekly international services to Istanbul, Frankfurt, London, Paris and Amsterdam. New Delhi, Lahore and Amritsar enjoyed three flights per week.

Ariana Afghan Airlines originally had its headquarters in Kandahar. There were plans to build a modern terminal and maintenance hangar there. However, in 1965 the operational base was moved from Kandahar to Kabul airport so that it would be closer to the Air Transport Ministry. The airport in Kabul, which had been built with Soviet assistance, is situated in a caldera at an altitude of approx. 1,790m. It is surrounded by mountains extending up to 7,000m. Other challenges which flying operations have to contend with include high temperatures in the summer, freezing conditions in the winter and sand and dust storms.

5 October 1979 was an important date in the history of Ariana. On that day the Afghan airline acquired its first wide-body jet, a brand-new DC-10-30 with the registration YA-LAS. The crew were trained in the USA by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 replaced one Boeing 727-200 and was deployed on the “Marco Polo” route between India and Europe via Kabul. However, the DC-10's days were numbered, and during the Soviets occupation of Afghanistan the showpiece of the Ariana fleet was sold to the United Kingdom, to be replaced by two Tupolev 154M's. These aircraft were later casualties of the war at Kabul airport.

After the Russians invaded Afghanistan, all the west European countries cancelled Ariana's permissions to land. From this time on the airline flew to virtually no destinations outside the eastern bloc. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops it provided regional services. Then in 1985 Ariana suffered a tragic loss, when an An-24 was shot down by a missile near Kandahar, with 52 fatalities. In 1993 Ariana bought three Boeing 727-200's from Air France and had the pilots trained at the Royal Jordanian Air Academy in Amman.

When the Taliban came to power in 1996, Ariana served its international route network with two Boeing 727-100's and one 727-200. These aircraft flew regular flights to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Tadzhikistan. Domestic flights were handled by a fleet of five An-24's. The regime's isolation from the world community resulted in the official suspension of all international flights in 1999.

After the Taliban were driven out and the UN sanctions were lifted, Ariana launched its comeback. In January 2002 it resumed its first service to an international destination, the Indian capital city of New Delhi. The launch of the Frankfurt service in September 2002 signified the revival of another route of economic importance to the country. For Ariana this was an important step in the direction of normality, and brought with it the hope of being able to restore the old, more successful days. Whether it succeeds will depend largely on political developments in the country. Only if peace genuinely prevails will the white swallow gain sufficient lift to circle above the Hindukush mountain peaks on a sound financially footing once more.

From FLUG REVUE 7/2003

Last updated 11 June 2003

FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany