Developments in the 1980s

In spite of political hardships happening in Tunisia during the 1980s, Air Tunisie continued to embark on its international expansion nonetheless. Service to Montreal and New York City, the airline's first long-haul destinations, was launched with the delivery of two Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 500s in 1982. The TriStar purchases interestingly came about in response to Lockheed offering generous discounts to Air Tunisie after Peruvian airline Aviaperú cancelled their orders for the type in 1979. The aircraft's lack of buyers resulting from its late introduction also happened to play a role, however.

Apart from the recently introduced TriStars, the rest of Air Tunisie's 1982 fleet consisted of five Boeing 727-200s, one Boeing 737-200, two Cessna 402s, and one Aérospatiale N 262, bringing the total fleet count to ten aircraft. The airline's route network throughout the 1980s radiated from Djerba and Tunis (its main hub) to Abidjan, Algiers, Amsterdam, Bamako, Benghazi, Brussels, Cairo, Casablanca, Conakry, Cotonou, Dakar, Frankfurt, Gafsa, Geneva, Istanbul, Jeddah, Khartoum, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Marseille, Montreal, New York City, Niamey, Nice, Nouakchott, Oran, Ouagadougou, Paris, Rome, Sfax, Tozeur, Tripoli, and Zürich.

Registration: TS-JIA
Aircraft name: Sousse/سوسة