[6][7] Ariana Afghan Airlines has been on the list of air carriers banned in the European Union since October 2006 (2006-10)[update].

[9] It was established as Aryana Airlines with the assistance of Indamer Co. Ltd., which initially held a 49% stake, and the government of Afghanistan owned the balance.

[11] By April 1960 (1960-04), a fleet of three DC-3s was being used for linking Kabul with Amritsar, Delhi, Jeddah, and Karachi, as well as with some points within Afghanistan, while a single DC-4 operated the Kabul–Kandahar–Tehran–Damascus–Beirut–Ankara–Prague–Frankfurt service, the so-called "Marco Polo" route.

At this time, the fleet comprised one Boeing 727-100C, one CV-440, one DC-3 and two Douglas DC-6s that worked on routes serving the Middle East, India, Pakistan, the USSR, and Istanbul, Frankfurt, and London.

[18] In February 1988 (1988-02), Bakhtar was merged back into Ariana, thus creating an airline which could serve both short and long haul routes.

However, sanctions imposed by UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in November 1999 forced the airline to suspend overseas operations.

[24] According to the Los Angeles Times:[25] With the Taliban's blessing, Bin Laden effectively had hijacked Ariana, the national civilian airline of Afghanistan.

For four years, according to former U.S. aides and exiled Afghan officials, Ariana's passenger and charter flights ferried Islamic militants, arms, cash and opium through the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.

[48] As of September 2023[update], Ariana Afghan Airlines served five domestic and eight international destinations in Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan, and China; most of the routes radiate from Kabul.