Country Business Analysis I
Ariana Afghan Airlines was established on January 27, 1955. During the 1970s, Ariana was considered a top notch airline company by many travel experts. The airliner at that time had such equipment as Douglas DC-10s flying for them. Times looked bright for the airline company.
After the defeat of the Soviet Union in 1989 and former Najibulla's communist regime, the Taliban took over Kabul in 1996. Afghanistan faced substantial economic sanctions from the international sector during the Taliban. That, combined with the fact that the Taliban government took over the company and stopped all international flights, affected the airline's economic status through most of the 1990s, a period where their fleet was reduced to only a handful of Russian 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. During this time, the airliner's president was Hafez Younis. In 1999 Ariana flew only to Dubai and Saudi Arabia; also, limited cargo flights continued into China's western provinces. However, the UN sanctions forced the airline company to suspend overseas operations. In November 2001, the company was grounded completely.
After the removal of the Taliban government in 2001, following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, and subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Ariana began to rebuild its operations by December 2001. About a month later, the UN sanctions were finally lifted so the airlines can fly again. As a gesture of good-will and step towards creating foreign relations with Afghanistan, the government of India gave the state carrier th ...