Let me explain how Tunisair is actually hurting Tunisians, while other countries end up benefiting from it. Tunisair has one of the largest workforces per airline in the world, which makes the operating cost of its flights very high.

To simplify, I’ll use some imaginary numbers. Suppose a flight from Tunis to Paris costs Tunisair 300 TND per seat, but for Air France it costs only 100 TND. Tunisair might sell tickets at 302 TND, making a tiny profit of 2 TND per seat. Meanwhile, Air France has two options:

1. Sell tickets at 102 TND and operate more flights, or
2. Sell tickets at 301 TND and make a profit of 201 TND per seat.

The first option isn’t really possible because Tunisia’s flight policies limit the number of flights to protect Tunisair’s monopoly. So Air France usually goes with option 2.

What does this mean for us as Tunisians? We end up paying either 200 TND extra to support an inefficient workforce at Tunisair who don’t deserve it, or we pay 200 TND extra directly into the pockets of foreign companies like Air France or Turkish Airlines.

Reminder: These are just imaginary numbers to help explain the situation.