Tassili Airlines (SF, Algiers) will make its continental African debut during the first half of this year airline chief executive officer Belkacem Harchaoui has announced.

Speaking in Algiers during an end of year press conference, Harchaoui said the carrier had come under increasing pressure from Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal to operate more African routes.

Since its establishment in 1997, Tassili Airlines has focussed primarily on domestic charter flights in support of its parent, Algerian petroleum-producing parent, Sonatrach. In 2013, it ventured into the Algerian scheduled domestic and the general international markets where its services currently focus on France.

As such, the CEO said Tassili Airlines had now put in motion plans to offer regular flights from Algiers to Nouakchott, Mauritania via Tindouf, an Algerian commune close to the Mauritanian, Western Saharan, and Moroccan borders.

Operations will, presumably, be on-board the airline's fleet of four B737-800s.