Domestic Airlines

Is Domestic Airlines safe?

Mostly, though it flies the hardest part of Algeria. Domestic Airlines, known until July 2025 as Tassili Airlines, has had no fatal accident in 20 years and is IOSA-registeredIOSAThe 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 as an IATA member. We score it 70, just below its parent Air Algérie (72).

What pulls it down is a pattern rather than one event. Between August 2024 and February 2025 its aircraft burst or lost tyres on four flights, and in one case the debris damaged a propeller and a cabin window. Add a network built around Saharan airports and a thin public record, and the score sits in the low 70s.

From Tassili Airlines to Domestic Airlines

Tassili Airlines was a subsidiary of Sonatrach, the state oil and gas company, and flew oil workers to the Saharan fields before it added scheduled flights. In June 2025 Sonatrach agreed to hand it to Air Algérie, the transfer was completed in August, and the airline was relaunched as Domestic Airlines, with a green livery and a brief to fly only inside Algeria. It began flying under the new name in late August 2025.

The certificate, aircraft, crews and SF flight code stayed the same, so Tassili's record is this airline's record. Under our rules it keeps its own page and score, separate from Air Algérie, because it flies under its own code and certificate. Air Algérie also ordered 16 ATR 72-600s for it in July 2025; the first arrived in Algiers in July 2026, and the rest are due by 2028.

What is in its accident record?

The only fatal accident is outside our 20-year window. On 28 January 2004 a Beechcraft 1900D chartered by Sonatrach crashed on approach to Ghardaïa at night, killing one of the five people on board.

Inside the window, two aircraft were damaged and nobody was hurt:

• Ouargla, March 2019. The left main landing gear of a Beech 1900D collapsed on landing with 16 people on board.
• Rhourde Nouss, August 2024. A Dash 8-400 carrying gas-field workers burst its right main tyres on take-off. Passenger photos showed shredded tyres, a damaged propeller tip and a damaged cabin window next to the propeller. The aircraft returned and landed safely.

Why the incident record is weak

The Rhourde Nouss tyre failure was not a one-off. Two days later another Dash 8-400 burst a tyre landing at Oran. In December 2024 a 737-800 arriving from Jeddah at El Oued burst both right main tyres and stopped on the runway. In February 2025 a Dash 8-400 rejected its take-off at Tamanrasset after a tyre failed. After the second event in 2024 an investigation into the repeated failures was reported, but no findings have been published.

Two other events fall in the ten years. In October 2017 a Dash 8-200 crew who had lost radio contact set the transponder to the hijack code instead of the lost-radio code, and security forces surrounded the aircraft at Oran. In July 2025 a 737-800 on flight SF3001 from Paris lost separation with a Nouvelair A320neo in a holding pattern near Algiers. Algeria's investigators rated it a serious incident; the cause is not public, so it weighs less.

The fleet and the network

Before the first ATR, the airline had 15 aircraft: Boeing 737-800s for the busier routes, and Dash 8-400 and older Dash 8-200 turboprops for the smaller southern airports. The ATRs should replace the oldest turboprops over the next two years.

The network is the hard part. Domestic Airlines flies mainly to the Algerian south, Tamanrasset, Djanet, Illizi, Adrar, Béchar and oil and gas airstrips, where summer heat cuts aircraft performance, sandstorms close airports and the nearest alternate can be hundreds of kilometres away. Air Algérie's international network, by comparison, ends at well-equipped European airports.

Flying Domestic Airlines: what to check

• Leave slack on Saharan routes. Sandstorms and heat cause diversions and cancellations; do not book a tight onward connection out of Tamanrasset or Djanet.
• Check the flight number. SF flights are Domestic Airlines, AH flights are Air Algérie.
• Pack small for turboprops. Dash 8 and ATR overhead bins are small, so larger cabin bags often go in the hold.

How we scored it

The accident record (82) reflects no fatal accident in 20 years but two damaged aircraft. 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. The repeated tyre failures (incidents 56), the Saharan network (58) and an older turboprop fleet (62) bring Domestic Airlines to 70. For the other side of the border, compare Tunisair Express.