Air Algérie

Is Air Algérie safe?

Air Algérie is a reasonable choice, and its record is better than its reputation. No flight that Air Algérie operated with its own aircraft and crew has had a fatal accident in the last 20 years. The crash most people remember, flight AH5017 in Mali in 2014, was flown by a Spanish airline on contract. We score Air Algérie 72.

The catch is the run of crew errors in the last decade, from a child at the controls of an ATR to a 737 lining up with the wrong airport in France in 2025. Add a fleet averaging about 17 years and an Algerian investigation board that publishes little, and Air Algérie sits below Royal Air Maroc (82), between EgyptAir (70) and Tunisair (74).

What happened on flight AH5017?

On the night of 24 July 2014, flight AH5017 left Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso for Algiers with 110 passengers and six crew. The aircraft was an MD-83 registered in Spain, and the crew were Swiftair pilots: Air Algérie had hired the jet with its crew (a wet lease) for the summer peak. Climbing past storms over Mali, ice crystals blocked the engines' pressure sensors because the engine anti-ice system was off. Thrust fell back, the autopilot kept holding altitude as the speed decayed, and the aircraft stalled and hit the ground near Gossi. Everyone on board died.

Under our rules an accident counts against the airline whose certificate and crew flew the aircraft. That was Swiftair, so AH5017 is not in Air Algérie's accident score. On 28 September 2026 a Paris criminal court convicted Swiftair of involuntary homicide and fined it 225,000 euros, finding that it had never trained the two pilots on approach to stall and recovery. The choice of partner is still Air Algérie's, so on a peak-season booking it is worth checking which airline operates the flight.

The crashes before the window

Air Algérie's own fatal accidents are older. On 6 March 2003 flight 6289, a Boeing 737-200, lost its left engine just after lifting off from Tamanrasset in the Sahara. The captain took control before the failure had been identified, and the aircraft crashed beside the runway: 102 of the 103 people on board died. On 13 August 2006 an Air Algérie Hercules freighter crashed near Piacenza in northern Italy on a flight to Frankfurt, killing its three crew. That crash falls two months outside our 20-year window. The window is a fixed rule, so it no longer counts, but it is why we keep the accident record below airlines with decades without a fatal crash.

Since then the damage has been minor: a 737-800 damaged landing at Sétif in 2008, and an ATR 72 that landed at Ghardaïa in March 2021 with its nose gear stuck up. Nobody was hurt in either. In April 2025 turbulence over southern Algeria seriously injured a cabin crew member on a 737 from Paris.

The incidents that hold the score down

The 10-year incident record is what we worry about most, because it points to crew discipline rather than bad luck:

• July 2017, Algiers to Sétif. An ATR crew let a child sit in the captain's seat and handle the controls in flight, with the first officer supervising, and filmed it. The civil aviation directorate grounded the crew, and Air Algérie said the captain had been arrested.
• October 2017, Oran. An Airbus A330 landed on a runway that had been closed for works for at least two months. The case came to light ten days later, and the crew were suspended.
• December 2019, Paris Orly. Ordered to go around because a vehicle had stopped at the runway edge, a 737-800 sank to 1,250 feet above the ground in the climb-out. France's BEA rated it a serious incident; there was no cockpit voice recording to analyse.
• September 2021, Algiers. An ATR 72 from Béchar veered off the runway on landing and stopped with its nose gear in the soft ground. Nobody was hurt, and Algeria's investigation board rated it a serious incident.
• November 2023, Algiers. A 737-800 bound for Paris struck its tail during the take-off run, and the crew rejected the take-off. Cargo pallets had been loaded in an aft compartment instead of the forward one.
• August 2025, Toulouse. A 737-800 lined up with the short runway of Francazal, a military and business airfield, instead of Blagnac, and air traffic control sent it around at about 2,000 feet.

Two runway conflicts in France, at Lyon in 2022 and Marseille in 2024, were caused by air traffic control, so we do not hold them against the airline. On 22 September 2024 flight AH3018 from Algiers to Istanbul shut down an engine, lost cabin pressure and returned to Algiers, but the A330 (9H-HFH) and its crew were hired from Hi Fly Malta, so that serious incident counts on its record, not here. Algeria's own investigation board rarely publishes reports, so this list leans on French and press records. The real number of domestic incidents is likely higher.

How old is the Air Algérie fleet?

Air Algérie had 59 aircraft in April 2026. Fleet trackers put the average age at about 16.7 years, older than Royal Air Maroc (11.9) or EgyptAir (10.2), though younger than Air Peace or FlySafair (Planespotters data via Nairametrics, July 2026). Most of the flying is done by Boeing 737-800s delivered from the early 2000s to 2015, older A330-200s and ATR turboprops. Renewal has started: four A330-900s had arrived by April 2026 with three more due by the end of the year, five 737-8s are due in 2026, and its new domestic subsidiary, Domestic Airlines (formerly Tassili Airlines, SF), took the first of 16 ATR 72-600s in July 2026. Air Algérie says it wants an average age below 10 years.

Flying Air Algérie: what to check

• Check the operator in summer. Air Algérie has hired aircraft with crews from other airlines for peak seasons, as with AH5017. The booking should name the operating airline.
• On long routes, look for the A330-900. The new A330s are the youngest aircraft in the fleet.
• For Saharan domestic flights, keep plans flexible. Sand storms and heat cause diversions and cancellations at southern airports, and alternates are far apart.

How we scored it

The accident record (86) is the strongest factor: no fatal accident or hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary of its own in 20 years, with AH5017 counted on Swiftair. IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary keeps oversight at 70 despite thin national reporting. The old fleet (62) and a weak incident record (54) pull the score down to 72. Compare Tunisair next door.