In response to a written question from the MP for Raoued, Halim Boussema, concerning the situation of the public airline, the Minister of Transport, Rachid Amri, who was precise in his intervention, recalled “decision No. 7 issued by the restricted ministerial council held on January 31, 2025, concerning the continuation of the airline’s activities.
This decision instructed the Ministry of Transport to prepare a restructuring plan and submit it to the Council of Ministers no later than March. In order to meet deadlines and commitments toward the various supervisory authorities and state services, Tunisair transmitted the restructuring program approved by its Board of Directors on March 27, 2025, to the Ministry’s services so that it could be submitted to the Prime Ministry within the required timeframe.”
A response of the kind: “It wasn’t me who decided it, it was the Council of Ministers!”
Experts for a fifth restructuring plan after four that were never implemented
The minister then told the MP, apparently to emphasize that this was the responsibility of the entire ministry and not only his own, that “as a result, the Ministry of Transport invited Tunisair to call on experts specialized in restructuring civil airlines, in order to finalize the restructuring program according to a renewed vision, in compliance with the laws and regulations in force and the increasing budgetary constraints.
The objective is to propose operational measures and procedures to improve the company’s governance and optimize its management, drawing on international best practices and experiences. The company’s relevant departments have already started this process by launching a call for tenders to select the experts who will carry out this mission.”
A fifth call for tenders — why and for what?
According to Amen Invest, which provided some details on the call for tenders for international experts (note: this will cost a lot in foreign currency for a country that counts every dollar to survive) mentioned by the minister, “Tunisair has begun drafting the terms of reference to recruit an international consulting firm specialized in airline restructuring.
This initiative, stemming from the decisions of a ministerial council in January 2025, aims to present a comprehensive recovery plan to improve the company’s operational efficiency and competitiveness. By relying on international best practices in governance, the program must reconcile national legal requirements with the State’s budgetary constraints to ensure a sustainable transition.”
Yet another restructuring plan to be drafted by foreign experts
However, Minister Amri should be reminded that no fewer than four restructuring plans have already been produced: one in 2013, another in 2015, a third in 2018, and the latest in 2022. He probably never heard about them at the ISET of Radès where he previously worked.
Otherwise, he would have been told that these projects were presented by the various management teams that followed one another since the revolution, but none led to any decision.
All past and present officials at Tunisair know that the company’s main problem is, above all, money—money to reduce staff numbers, cut costs, renew the fleet without additional loans, and expand its network, particularly in Africa where the market is very profitable for the airline.
Everyone also knows that successive governments, starting with that of Youssef Chahed, have always refused to give the company the cash it needed.
“No money for Tunisair,” said a former Prime Minister. Has that changed?
In 2019, he said: “I am telling you now: there will be no 1.2 billion dinars.”
This amount represented, at the time, the official estimate of what Tunisair needed to rise above the financial crisis that was weighing it down.
Any expert will tell you that this amount has certainly more than doubled by now. What could have been done six years ago with 1 billion dinars now costs far more and is even harder to achieve.
Meanwhile, a ministry speaking about a 3-billion-dinar expansion of Tunis-Carthage Airport, a project already making more than one contractor’s mouth water, while still talking about defining a new rescue plan for the national flag carrier, without specifying when it will happen, does not seem very serious to the average Tunisian. Especially when that same airline, which will operate from the expanded airport, is expected to do so while no one appears willing to give it the financial support it needs.
