As was speculated about last year, Algeria's Tassili Airlines (SF) will, at long last, launch its first scheduled domestic flights to eleven destinations beginning 4 March, in what marks Algeria's first steps towards the deregulation of its airspace.
Having been previously restricted to operating charter flights for oil companies, Tassili received their AOC to operate domestic flights from the Algerian government in September 2011, with scheduled ops set to have been launched by April 2012. However, for whatever reasons, the launch was delayed until now.
Whilst bookings are currently unavailable on its site, Tassili lists its initial destinations to be:
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| Tassili's New Network (Tassili) |
- Annaba,
- Adrar,
- Algiers,
- Bejaia,
- Bechar,
- Constantine,
- El Oued,
- Ghardaia,
- Illizi,
- In Salah,
- Oran,
- Ouargla,
- Tamanrasset,
- Tlemcen.
The airline operates four Boeing 737-800, four Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 and four Dash-8 Q200s.
While Tassili's entry into the domestic Algerian market does represent a "liberalization" of sorts (as Tassili has put it, it seeks to "cooperate with Air Algèrie (AH), not compete with them"), it should be recalled that the airline's shareholding is 100% owned by Algerian state-owned oil outfit, Sonatrach, hence the playing field is still not open to private players.
