History
Air Mauritanie was established in September 1962 and started operations in October 1962. It took over the limited regional services previously flown by Air France and UAT-Airmaritime. With the help of Spantax, a Spanish airline, Air Mauritanie started services in 1963 using Fokker F27 aircraft. Also the company operated at least on DC3 and one DC4. The 1980s saw international routes to Las Palmas and Dakar added. In 1983 Fokker F28 jets were added to the fleet and in 1996 ATR 42 aircraft were purchased. Since then Boeing 737s have been introduced. As of June 2005, Air Mauritanie is was prohibited from flying into the United Kingdom, because of evidence that they are not receiving adequate regulatory oversight from their national aviation authority.
The new Mauritanian transition Government in August 2005 started looking for a strategic partner for the heavily indebted company, which is owned by the Mauritanian government (11%), Bollore, Elf Oil and Mauritanian Bank. It was reported in August 2006 that Royal Air Maroc was to take a 51% stake in the airline and to effectively take over its management. Air Mauritanie had 235 employees as of March 2007.
In October 2007, however, the airline was liquidated after it was unable to pay the leases on two of its aircraft, which were repossessed by leasing company ILFC. The government of Mauritania has now established a new airline, Mauritania Airways, in conjunction with Royal Air Maroc and a local company.
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