Somali Airlines was the flag carrier of Somalia. Established in 1964, it offered flights to both domestic and international destinations. It operated Boeing 720Bs, Boeing 707-300s and Airbus A310-300s on a network to the Middle East and Europe. The airline discontinued operations after the start of the civil war in the early 1990s. A reconstituted Somali government later began preparations in 2012 for an expected relaunch of the carrier, with the first new Somali Airlines aircraft scheduled for delivery by the end of December 2013.

Somali Airlines was founded on 5 March 1964 as the newly independent Somalia's national airline. The country's then civilian government and Alitalia owned equal shares in the company, with each holding a 50% controlling stake. Under a five-year agreement, Alitalia provided the airline with technical support. According to Somali Airlines' Director at the time, Abdulahi Shireh, the carrier was established primarily to more effectively connect the capital Mogadishu to other regions in the nation.

Shortly after the carrier was formed, four Douglas DC-3s were donated by the United States. The airline began operations in July 1964 (1964-07), initially serving domestic destinations with a fleet of three DC-3s and two Cessna 180s. Prior to this, local services had been operated by Aden Airways. The Mogadishu–Aden run kept being flown under a pool agreement with Aden Airways until March 1965, when Somali Airlines embarked on serving the route to this destination with its own aircraft. A service to Nairobi was later launched in January 1966 (1966-01). It was discontinued in June the same year, after the carrier was banned from flying into Kenyan airspace following Radio Mogadishu airing verbal attacks against the Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta. A weekly service to Dar-es-Salaam was introduced in October 1967 (1967-10).

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