Sudan Airways (Arabic: الخطوط الجوية السودانية‎) is the national airline of Sudan, headquartered in Khartoum. The carrier is a member of the International Air Transport Association, of the Arab Air Carriers Organization since 1965, and of the African Airlines Association since 1968, becoming a founding member along with another ten companies. As of December 2011^[update], the company is owned in its majority by the Government of Sudan, and has a 1,700-strong staff.

The airline is included in the list of airlines banned in the EU, as of March 2010^[update].

The airline was formed in February 1946 with the technical assistance of Airwork Limited, and the commercial support of Sudan Railways. The first scheduled operations were launched in July 1947. Khartoum became Sudan Airways' hub from the very beginning. From there, the carrier started flying four different services all across the Sudanese territory, as well as to Eritrea. The first routes the company flew linked Khartoum with Asmara, Atbara, El Fashir, El Obeid, Geneina, Juba, Kassala, Malakal, and Port Sudan, all of them served with de Havilland Dove equipment.

Sudan (ⁱ/suːˈdæn/ or /suːˈdɑːn/;Arabic: السودان‎, as-Sūdān), officially the Republic of the Sudan (Arabic: جمهورية السودان‎, Jumhūrīyat as-Sūdān), sometimes called North Sudan, is an Arab state in North Africa (sometimes also considered to be part of the Middle East). It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. The population of Sudan is a combination of indigenous inhabitants of Nile Valley, and descendants of migrants from the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the process of Arabisation common throughout the rest of the Arab World, today Arab culture predominates in Sudan. The majority of the population of Sudan adheres to Islam. The Nile divides the country between east and west sides.

The people of Sudan have a long history extending from antiquity which is intertwined with the history of Egypt. Sudan suffered seventeen years of civil war during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972) followed by ethnic, religious and economic conflicts between the Muslim Arab northern Sudanese and the mostly animist and Christian Nilotes of Southern Sudan. This led to the Second Sudanese Civil War in 1983. Because of continuing political and military struggles, Sudan was seized in a bloodless coup d'état by colonel Omar al-Bashir in 1989, who thereafter proclaimed himself President of Sudan. The civil war ended with the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement which granted autonomy to what was then the southern region of the country. Following a referendum held in January 2011, South Sudan seceded on 9 July 2011 with the consent of Sudan's President al-Bashir.