Eritrean Airlines, shortened to Eritrean, is the national airline of Eritrea. Based at Asmara International Airport, it is wholly owned by the government of Eritrea. Scheduled service had been discontinued since 2008, and the airline operated only a few hajj flights every year. The airline was restarted under new management in 2011 and in 2011, Nasair, a privately owned company, merged with government-owned Eritrean Airlines, to form Nasair Eritrea.

Eritrean Airlines has been banned from flying into the European Union since December 2012.

The airline was nominally established in May 1991 (1991-05), serving as the ground handling agent at Asmara International Airport and at Assab and Massawa. It also acted as sales agent for other major airlines flying to Eritrea. In May 2002, it was decided to expand into airline services. In April 2003 (2003-04), an ex-EgyptAir 14-year-old Boeing 767-300ER was leased from Boeing and used to start operations between Asmara and Amsterdam. It was the first aircraft the airline took possession of, and was named Queen Bee.

The lease of the first Boeing 767 seems to have been replaced by an Airbus A320 in 2006 and then replaced again with a Boeing 757 in early 2007. It was again replaced with a DC-9 in late 2007, ending up with an MD-83.

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