Tunisair

Is Tunisair safe?

Yes, on the record that matters most. Tunisair has never had a fatal accident, and in 20 years it has written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary one aircraft, an Airbus A320 that slid off the runway in a rain squall at Tunis in 2013 with nobody killed. It passes the IATA safety audit (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) and flies freely to Europe. We score it 74, above EgyptAir (70) and Air Algérie (72), below Royal Air Maroc (82).

What holds it back is the airline behind the record. Tunisair has been short of aircraft and money for years, its fleet is old, and very little about its incidents is published.

What is in Tunisair's accident record?

On 6 February 2013, flight TU712 from Casablanca landed at Tunis-Carthage in gusty wind as a rain squall crossed the airport. About 1,600 metres down the runway the A320 veered right, ran across the grass, crossed the other runway and stopped on a taxiway with its nose gear collapsed. All 83 people got off, and the aircraft was written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary.

Two other events sit close to Tunisair without counting on its page:

• Tuninter 1153, 6 August 2005. An ATR 72 of Tuninter, renamed Sevenair in 2007 and Tunisair Express in 2011, ran out of fuel and ditched off Palermo. 16 of the 39 people on board died. Mechanics had fitted a fuel gauge built for the smaller ATR 42, so the crew believed they had far more fuel than they did. The Italian investigators also faulted the crew and the airline's checks. It is outside our window, and it was not a Tunisair flight: Tuninter had its own certificate and flight numbers, so the crash belongs to Tunisair Express's history.
• Conakry, 28 July 2010. A Boeing 737-700 owned by Tunisair and still registered in Tunisia overran the runwayRunway excursionWhen an aircraft leaves the runway surface during take-off or landing, either off the end (an overrun) or off the side (a veer-off).More in the glossary in heavy rain at Conakry in Guinea, flying as Mauritania Airways flight YD620. About ten people were hurt and the aircraft was written off. Tunisair owned 51% of Mauritania Airways, which flew the route under its own flight number and is named as the operator, so we count it on that airline. We could not confirm whose crew flew it; if it was a Tunisair crew on a Tunisair certificate, it would count here.

Tunisair has also hired aircraft with crews from Ukraine's SkyUp to cover its shortage. Events on those flights count on the airline that flies them.

Why is Tunisair short of aircraft?

The shortage is the airline's defining problem. In 2021 Tunisair owned 27 aircraft averaging 16 years, including seven Boeing 737-600s and four A319s, some more than 20 years old. Aircraft have waited months for engine repairs, and in 2026 the minister described the maintenance arm, Tunisair Technics, as still recovering. In April 2026 the transport minister told parliament that 12 aircraft were in service and two more were in maintenance, with an A320 and an A330 waiting for engine repairs. The plan is 18 aircraft of its own by the end of 2026, plus three leased with an option to buy.

Renewal is slow. Five A320neos have arrived since late 2021 through sale-and-leaseback deals, and four more aircraft were dry-leased for six years. The rest are A320ceos, two A330-200s for the longer routes, and the older 737-600s and A319s.

A small fleet is not in itself unsafe. Grounding an aircraft that needs an engine is what a careful airline does. But an airline under constant schedule and cost pressure is one where maintenance quality is worth watching, and that is why we weigh the thin incident record cautiously.

Serious incidents

Few Tunisair incidents reach the public record. The most serious we found was at Frankfurt on 15 September 2018. Offered a switch to the parallel runway on approach, the crew of an A320 from Tunis lined up instead with the taxiway between the two runways and descended to about 200 feet before going around. Germany's BFU did not open an investigation, but Frankfurt suspended runway switches on approach afterwards. Other cases are depressurisations that led to emergency descents, over France near Nice in August 2017 and near Munich in May 2017, and bird strikes. Tunisia's investigation office publishes little, so the absence of reports is not proof of a clean record.

Flying Tunisair: what to check

• Build in slack. Delays of several hours have been common in summer. Avoid tight onward connections on separate tickets, and keep a later fallback for weddings, cruises or medical appointments.
• Know who operates your flight. Summer flights may be flown by leased aircraft and crews, and domestic or short regional flights by Tunisair Express. The booking shows the operating airline.
• Use EU passenger rights. On flights from an EU airport, EU261 applies to Tunisair for long delays and cancellations, whatever the cause of the shortage.

How we scored it

The accident record (86) is the strongest part: no fatal accident and one 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 in 20 years. 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, and the network (72) is mostly short routes to good airports. The old fleet (58) and a thin, cautiously scored incident record (62) bring Tunisair to 74.