Puntland, a self-declared autonomous region at the Horn of Africa in northeastern Somalia, revoked the flight permit of Daallo Airlines (Somalia) (D9, Hargeisa) for all Puntland airports on March 1, 2026, citing safety concerns and regulatory violations.
In a circular signed by Abdullahi Bile Nur, the local minister of civil aviation and airports, the Puntland government claimed the airline had "twice endangered the lives of Puntland officials and citizens and violated civil aviation laws and regulations."
No further details were provided in the stamped document, published by the regulator on its official social media platform.
Daallo Airlines has made no announcement, but ch-aviation has reached out to the airline for comment. The carrier serves two Puntland airports, Garowe and Bosaso.
According to multiple Somali news reports, the licence revocation comes after several Somali federal lawmakers representing Puntland and civilian passengers were left stranded at Mogadishu earlier on March 1 after a Daallo Airlines flight was denied clearance to land at Garowe and was forced to return to Mogadishu.
According to news site Somaliland Current, this followed a similar incident on February 1 when a Puntland delegation travelling on a Daallo Airlines flight from Garowe was barred from landing at Mogadishu.
Some of the affected Puntland politicians labelled the diversion as political interference that prevented them from representing their constituencies.
Daallo Airlines operates one in-house DHC-8-Q400, 7Q-DAL (msn 4232). It wet-leases one B737-300, 5Y-KQB (msn 28747), from Kenya Airways, which operates between Mogadishu, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta, Entebbe, Dubai International, and Garowe. It also wet-leases two B737-400s from Kenya's Fanjet Express: 5Y-FQB (msn 28550) and 5Y-FQC (msn 28152), which operate between Jeddah International, Mogadishu, and Hargeisa. ADS-B data shows that 5Y-FQB was diverted to Mogadishu on March 1, while en-route from Jeddah to Hargeisa.
