SOMALI AIRLINES, LTD.: P. O. Box 726, Via Medina, Mogadishu, Somalia; Phone 252 (1) 81 533; Fax 252 (1) 80 489; Code HH; Year Founded 1964. The government (51%), in partnership with Alitalia, S. p.A. (49%), forms this new national carrier on March 9, 1964 to provide scheduled passenger and freight services. Hamud Sherif is named chairman and a five-year support contract is signed with the Italian flag carrier. The new entrant also receives a gift of four Douglas DC-3s from the U. S.
Revenue services are initiated with 2 Douglas DC-3s over a 15-point domestic network beginning in July.
On March 9, 1965, a full pooling agreement is signed with Aden Airways and the company’s first international route is operated. A route from Mogadishu to Aden is flown jointly with the new partner. By September, the four DC-3s are linking the capital with Hargeisa, Migiurtina, Chisomaio, Bosaso, Alulua, Candala, and smaller points.
Service to Nairobi is started in January 1966 and continues until June 16. On that day, after Radio Mogadishu airs propaganda attacks on Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta, flights into the country by Somali Airlines are banned. Roundtrip service to Dar es Salaam commences in October 1967.
During the remainder of the decade, the fleet is increased by the addition of two Vickers Viscount 785Ds and two Cessna 180s. Following the revolution of 1969, the relationship with Alitalia, S. p.A. ends. Abdi Mohammed Namus becomes chairman.
Having lost flight controls, a Vickers 785D with 4 crew and 26 passengers makes a heavy landing at Mogadishu on May 6, 1970; the landing gear collapses and the turboprop skids 900 m. (5 dead).
Following the Viscount tragedy, Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIA) acquires a managerial and technical contract during the early 1970s, succeeding Alitalia, S. p.A.
During 1971-1974, Chairman Kenadit Ahmed Yusuf’s fleet is gradually increased to include 2 Boeing B-720-023Bs (B-720Bs) leased from a British company, 2 Vickers Viscount 785D, 2 DC-3s, 1 Cessna 402, 2 Cessna 206s, and 1 Cessna 180. PIA provides the pilots to fly the Boeings on long-haul operations.
International services are inaugurated in 1975 and over the next decade link Mogadishu with Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, Sana’a’, Jeddah, Cairo, and Rome.
A DC-3 with three crew and eight passengers loses power to No. 1 engine and crashes near Bosaso on August 16; although the aircraft must be written off, there are no serious injuries.
The chartered B-720Bs are replaced in 1976 with two units of the same type purchased from American Airlines. Alitalia, S. p.A.’s stake is acquired by the government in 1977, which now assumes total control. When a Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G. Boeing 737-230 is hijacked to Mogadishu, the Somali government allows West German commandos to storm the plane and free its passengers.
In the aftermath of this incident, a new relationship is forged between the governments of the two involved nations and aid, including support for Somali Airlines, begins to arrive from Bonn in 1978. During the year, an F.27-600RF is placed into service. Airline employment grows to 352 by 1979.
The fleet is altered during the early 1980s as one B-720B is withdrawn and is replaced by two B-707-330Cs purchased from the West German state airline for $1 million each. Also acquired by lease from a company owned by the Bonn government are two Dornier 228-201s.
Routes are extended to Rome, Frankfurt, Djibouti, and Doha, plus eight local stops. Airline employment grows to some 700 in 1981. On July 20, the F.27-600RF with 50 passengers aboard crashes near Balad; there are no survivors.
Enplanements for the year reach 111,000.
After a drop-off to 99,000 in 1982, traffic increases again in 1983 as 117,000 passengers are transported. During the year, Colonel Mahamud Gulaid becomes chairman/CEO.
Three armed Somali soldiers hijack Flight 414, a B-720B en route from Mogadishu to Jeddah with 130 aboard on November 24, 1984, after beating the pilot and wounding a crew member in an in-flight shootout. The plane is diverted to Addis Ababa where 22 people are released, but a threat is made to blow up the plane unless the Somali government releases seven condemned prisoners.
On November 15, the pirates agree to wait until November 27 before taking action. On that day, with their jailed compatriots freed, they release their prisoners unharmed when given the choice of political asylum or exile.
Bookings for the year reach a high of 120,000.
Enplanements drop 20% to 100,000 in 1985. In 1986 , routes are opened to Banjul and Conakry. Operations continue apace in 1987. In April 1988, the company contracts with Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G. for the technical support of an Airbus Industrie A310-304, which is delivered in the fall under dry-lease from Sabena Belgian World Airlines, S. A. Traffic statistics are released for the first half of the year and show 61,781 enplanements.
In 1989, the fleet includes 2 B-720Bs, 1 of which is out of service, 2 Dornier 228-201s, and 1 each B-707-330C, Fokker F.27-600RF, and A310-304. The latter, a purchased unit, arrives in March to replace the leased Sabena machine.
After aborting its takeoff from Nairobi on May 17, a B-707-330B with 13 crew and 57 passengers overruns the end of a wet runway and ends up in a rice field. Although the Stratoliner must be written off, there are no fatalities.
En route from Hargeysa to Mogadishu on June 28, the F.27-600RF with 6 crew and 24 passengers is hit by a terrorist surface-to-air missile and crashes near Borama, Woqooyi Galbeed; there are no survivors.
Flights are interrupted by the civil strife in the early 1990s. Only the Airbus and Dorniers see service in 1990. In 1991, the Airbus is placed into storage and replaced by a B-727-282A. The Boeing is withdrawn in 1992 and the Dorniers are grounded.
By 1993-1996 as UN forces enforce cease-fires and then gradually evacuate, Chairman/CEO Gulaid’s dormant carrier possesses a fleet of 2 B-707-320Bs, 2 Dornier 228-201s, and the first of 2 ordered Airbus Industrie A310-304s. Plans are made to resume jet flights from Mogadishu to Doha, Djibouti, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Frankfurt, Rome, Jeddah, and Nairobi and have the Dorniers relaunch scheduled domestic services.
Flights with the Dorniers begin again and are sporatic thereafeter. On January 18, 1999, heavy fighting breaks out around the southern city of Kismayo and the Somali National Front closes it to all aircraft. Reviewing the activities of this concern in the 1990s, it is fair to say that it has not, in fact, operated as a real airline since 1991.
SONMEZ HOLDING AIRLINES (SONMEZ HAVAYOLLARI, A. S.): Yakova Yolu 9 Km, Sonmez Holding Tesisleri, Bursa, Turkey; Phone 90 (224) 246-5445; Fax 90 (224) 246-5446; Code SMZ; Year Founded 1984. Organized at Bursa in late 1984, President Osman Ce-likadam and General Manager Erdogan Keskin’s new third-level carrier undertakes scheduled flights to cities inland of the Sea of Marmara with a pair of CASA C-212-100 Aviocars.
Celal Sonmez becomes president in 1992. In 1993-1997, services linking Bursa with Istanbul are provided by the Aviocars and a Shorts 360-100. A Bell 222UT also provides passenger charters.
Service is maintained in 1998-2000, during which years the Aviocars are withdrawn and replaced with a Grumman Gulfstream 1 and a Cessna 650 Citation III bizjet.
SONORA AIRLINES: United States (1967-1969). Sonora Airlines is set up at Reno, Nevada, in late fall 1967 to provide scheduled passenger commuter roundtrips to Winnemuca via Ely and Lovelock. Daily Piper PA-31-310 Navajo revenue flights commence on December 16 and continue until the company goes out of business in 1969.
SOONAIR LINES: United States (1980-1981). Soonair is established at Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the first quarter of 1980 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo roundtrips to Dallas (DAL). Employing a Beech Turbo 18, daily revenue flights commence in April and are maintained until June 1981.
SOSOLISO AIRLINES, LTD.: Enugu, Nigeria; Code OSL; Year Founded 2000. Sosoliso Airlines is established at Enugu during the late spring of 2000 to offer scheduled revenue services to Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. A Boeing 727-2H9A is leased from JAT Yugoslav Airlines and employed to begin scheduled flights in July.
A second B-727-2H9A, christened Rose of Enugu, is chartered from JAT in late December.
SOUND AIR AVIATION: United States (1978). Sound Air Aviation, the FBO at Ronkonkoma, New York, establishes a scheduled air taxi division in 1978 to provide flights connecting Islip with New York (LGA). Although daily Aero Commander 500B roundtrips duly begin, they can only be maintained for a few months.
SOUNDAIR EXPRESS, LTD.: Canada (1979-1991). Having expanded, Brian Child’s Wiarton, Ontario-based Owen Sound Air Service (OSAS) is renamed Soundair in 1979; the company mission continues to provide all-cargo charter services to regional destinations. Service is rendered with a Cessna 310, a chartered Gates Learjet 23, and several Howard 500s (converted Lockheed Model 18 Lodestars). In February 1980, a contract is obtained from Purolator Courier, for international flights between Toronto and Columbus, Ohio. The service is inaugurated with the first of an order for Swearingen Merlin IVs, as Soundair begins retiring its Howards.
The first Douglas DC-3 is received in November 1981. Two more arrive under lease in 1982 and are employed to initiate a nightly contract, on behalf of Emery Air Freight, between Montreal and Hartford, Connecticut, via Burlington, Vermont. The original Douglas is now committed to Airborne Express for a service between Toronto and Buffalo. Company headquarters are transferred to Toronto at midyear and a Merlin IV St. Johns-Halifax-Toronto route is opened on behalf of Purolator Courier.
Three new owned DC-3s arrive in 1983, each a replacement for one of the earlier machines now returned. With loads increasing, the operator is in need of more capacity than its licensure will allow. To overcome Canada’s leisurely licensing process, owned Child begins merger discussions with financially distressed Aero Trades Western, Ltd. of Winnipeg.
Employing a second leased Gates Learjet, freighter flights are inaugurated in February 1984 from Vancouver to Calgary to Winnipeg to Columbus, Ohio. Late in the year, the Aero Trades Western, Ltd. acquisition is completed; the company not only receives upgraded licenses, but another DC-3 and two DC-4s.
Soundair is now transformed into a holding company to operate scheduled and nonscheduled airline subsidiaries. A passenger-flying division, Commuter Express, is discussed above. The freight subsidiary, which concerns us here, is relabeled Soundair Express. It will not release traffic statistics because officials claim they will not be tracking the carrier’s freight ton - kilometers.
One of the two newly acquired DC-4s is employed in January 1985 to take over the cargo flights from Montreal to Hartford via Burlington. The other four-engine Douglas and the acquired DC-3 assume Aero Trades Western, Ltd.’s freight charter service from Winnipeg to northern Manitoba. With a DC-4 purchased from Calm Air, Ltd. via Basler Flight Service and the other pulled off the nonscheduled Manitoba service in July, Soundair Express starts freighter flights on behalf of Emery
Air Freight to Dayton, Ohio, from Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton.
On October 6, a DC-3 is lost in a nonfatal accident at St. Louis. Later in the month, a Dassault Falcon 20, followed shortly thereafter by a second, begins flying for Purolator Courier between Montreal and Indianapolis via Ottawa and Toronto.
The three DC-4s are withdrawn in September 1986 and replaced with a Convair CV-580 in October. One of the former is sold to Air North, Ltd. In November, the Learjet 23s are transferred to a new Soundair subsidiary, Executive Jet Canada, Ltd. A Fokker Fairchild F.27F is purchased in May 1987, followed by another CV-580 in July. The Dutch-made turboprop is employed to service a DHL Corporation contract from Toronto to Cincinnati. Also during the summer, a Merlin IV is based at Montreal to undertake a DHL service to New York. Meanwhile, in the fall, a Cessna 402 and a Fairchild Metro II undertake replacement flights for NWT Air, Ltd. from Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal, respectively,.
Three additional Convairs are delivered in March 1988 and a fourth in May (withdrawn in August). During the spring, freight and courier services are combined and all but two Merlin IVs are withdrawn. The terminus of the Purolator Courier service is switched in September from Indianapolis to Wilmington, Ohio, and is rerouted to Winnipeg and Calgary. The Fokker is replaced by a Dassault. A DC-3 is sold in October.
Operations continue apace in 1989; however, recessionary cost increases put the company into the red. In April 1990, Soundair Express stops flying and goes into bankruptcy. When the company is liquidated in 1991, its assets are purchased by KnightHawk Air Express, Ltd.
SOUNDSAIR, LTD.: New Zealand (1996-1998). Soundsair is set up at Wellington Airport on April 4, 1996 to offer scheduled passenger and cargo services throughout the nation. The company is successor to John Sinclair’s bankrupt floatplane operation Floatair, Ltd., which had flown to Great Barrier and Steward Islands since 1992.
Barry Hvid is general manager and he begins and continues revenue operations with 1 each Cessna 185 and Partenavia P-68B, plus 2 Cessna 208 Caravan Is.
The company expands on November 1 to operate a shuttle service between Wellington and Koromiko near Picton. This doubles its number of daily flights across the strait from 8 to 16.
The Cook Strait airline encounters regulatory and safety difficulties in early 1997 and is briefly grounded. It resumes flying again on March 9 after the CAA is satisfied its passenger operations meet safety standards. Strict conditions have been imposed, including weekly safety audits.
The company is out of business in 1998.
World History
