Monday 24 February 2025 
The accession to power of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who had a serious and ambitious program to introduce radical changes in the air transport sector, coincided with the procedures for the virtual closure of the sky in the wake of the Corona pandemic, and the resulting repercussions on global airlines and international airports entered a long and deep state of sleep that lasted more than two years.
Despite the stagnation of air transport on a global scale, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has shown great accuracy in observing what is happening inside Air Algérie, even going as far as to dismiss the Minister of Transport and the General Manager of Air Algérie, on the basis of violation of his instructions following the start of an import operation by Air Algérie of supplies related to the activity of Catering and this, without taking into account the national economic context and the financial guidelines aimed at the rational management of currencies and the priority to be given to national production.
The President of the Republic has not abandoned his severity towards the mistakes that characterize the irrational management of the public air transport company, which represents a national symbol and ambassador of Algeria in international airports. He also finds no justification for the leniency of such behavior, even if the case required him to dismiss a second minister within a year because he had committed a “fatal fault in the exercise of his functions.” Even if President Tebboune did not reveal this error, the dismissal which coincided with the announcement by the Ministry of Transport of the operation of more than 100 additional international flights for Air Algérie, in given instructions to reduce the number of flights as much as possible within the framework of the restrictions linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, turned attention to this declaration which transcends and violates the instructions of the President of the Republic.
The total paralysis of Air Algérie and the Algerian airports, in addition to the aggravation of their difficult financial conditions, led to the postponement of the implementation of the program of the President of the Republic, which was actually launched only after its decision to lift the ban on air transport at the beginning of summer 2021, in particular with the investiture of Yacine Benslimane as CEO of Air Algérie, and Mohamed Layache Akacem as CEO of EGSA from Algiers International Airport four months ago.
The new CEO of Air Algérie is one of the young executives on whom President Tebboune has bet and who has given them confidence in the management and management of key public companies. He received initial training in the field of finance and management, which he was able to deepen at the National School of Civil Aviation in Toulouse, France. At the end of this, he entered a practical life between Algiers Airport, Air Algérie and Aigle Azur, where he was able, for nearly twenty years, to acquire sufficient experience to qualify for the next step.
This stage began with the appointment of Benslimane at the head of Air Algérie and his mission on the day of his inauguration, on June 18, to seek to acquire 15 new aircraft, the acquisition of which was announced last week. These are five (5) module 200 aircraft (A), three (3) module 200 aircraft (B), five (5) module 300 aircraft and two (2) module 400 aircraft, according to the document of this consultation which is intended exclusively for manufacturers of aircraft used in civil commercial transport, having the certificates and approvals governing the activity.
Once again, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, proved that he does not tolerate the bad behavior of certain Air Algérie employees, when he mentioned during his last regular meeting with the media the incident of the Oran-Adrar flight, and revealed that a group of young people had been refused boarding the plane due to a dispute that arose with some officials of Air Algérie, where he pointed out that “these officials are the ones who will fill the prisons in the future”, and promised to remedy these problems. It has also pledged to fight against these practices which hinder the implementation of its reforms.
Along with the expansion of its air fleet, the CEO of Air Algérie announced an ambitious program, which constitutes a real revolution in the way the company operates, its place on the wings of the world and the fate of management. traditional closure which has caused its successive crises. The philosophy of this radical change is based on the fact that Air Algérie is in competition with international airlines in foreign markets monopolized by them for many years, during which the national company has not gained a share that reflects the prestige of the Algerian state and its global weight.
The general manager, Yacine Benslimane, decided that the start of this program would be from what is available and through which the company could achieve certain and rapid success. Air Algerie will work to break into the European market from a number of French airports and will operate flights connecting these airports with the airports of a number of African countries, at reasonable prices and competitive. This program will be the start of other programs to follow which will open up prospects for Air Algérie to finally get out of the bottleneck.
Ahmed Achour