By: Mohamed Attia
The civil aviation sector, under the leadership of Minister of Civil Aviation Pilot Mohamed Manar, is witnessing a state of activity and brilliance on both the Arab and African scales.
Ashraf Noir, head of the Civil Aviation Authority, travelled to Morocco to take part in the activities of the General Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to be held from 27 September to 14 October 2022 at the Organisation’s headquarters in Montreal, Canada.
Also, at the African level, the Ministry of Civil Aviation seeks to have a strong presence in all African events at the level of air transport, as Engy Mustafa, Advisor to the President of the Civil Aviation Authority, participated in the activities of the African Aviation Week, which was held in Abuja, Nigeria, with the participation of more than 30 heads of aviation authorities in Africa in addition to about 20 delegates representing the rest of the countries of the African continent.
The activities of the African Aviation Week discussed several issues in the field of air transport.
African countries were urged to have a greater commitment to open borders through an updated risk management approach to support the restoration of air transport.
A call was also made to liberalise the air transport market in African countries in accordance with the Yamoussoukro decision, and to join the single African air transport market.
In the field of safety and air navigation, participants discussed encouraging African states to improve the effective implementation of safety and security oversight.
Participants in the event also urged countries to increase efforts in capacity building activities with the support of ICAO-GAT and other accredited training organisations.
Participants also emphasised improving or establishing data collection and processing systems to facilitate information exchange and sharing, enabling data-based decision-making processes.
They also encouraged states to exchange their experts to support implementation activities in other states in coordination with ICAO regional offices and to enhance co-operation between ICAO regional offices and other regional international organisations and partners, in order to maximise the impact of assistance activities and initiatives in the Africa region/ Indian Ocean.
In the field of environment, countries that did not develop state action plans and volunteered to participate in the CORSIA plan were encouraged to promote policies for the development and deployment of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs).
For its part, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, under the leadership of Minister Manar, is seeking during the current period to expand its activities within the African continent, within the framework of the Egyptian political leadership’s directives to enhance co-operation and intensify its presence within the African continent by building new strategic partnerships with African brothers.
The new activities of the Ministry of Civil Aviation within the African continent are to extend new lines to EgyptAir and Air Cairo, in addition to providing Umrah services and technical maintenance for many airlines.
EgyptAir has launched a new route to the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, at a rate of 3 flights per week.
The national company also signed a contract that includes the national company’s acquisition of 49% of the shares of Sudan Airways, provided that EgyptAir supplies Sudan Airways with four aircraft operating under the umbrella of the sister company and bearing its logo.
EgyptAir also provides, in accordance with the concluded contract, technical support to its Sudanese counterpart, in return for EgyptAir to exploit all the transportation lines of the Sudanese company from Khartoum to all points in Africa, allowing EgyptAir to penetrate and expand in Africa and cover new African points that it did not reach.
EgyptAir also signed a memorandum of understanding with Ghana, according to which EgyptAir becomes a strategic partner in establishing a new airline affiliated to the Ghanaian government, and EgyptAir’s share will be 70% of its capital.
Under the memorandum, EgyptAir supports the nascent Ghanaian company with eight planes, half of them are wide-class and the other half are medium-class. In return, EgyptAir will win all transport rights for the Ghanaian company to all points around the world and within Africa.
EgyptAir also received a Senegalese delegation headed by Ibrahim Kan, CEO of Senegal Airlines.
EgyptAir Maintenance and Engineering, headed by Engineer Yehia Zakaria, inaugurated a new aircraft maintenance centre at Kotoka Airport in the Ghanaian capital of Accra, to provide daily maintenance services to serve EgyptAir planes in addition to Qatar Airways planes that operate flights to Accra Airport.
On the other hand, Air Cairo, affiliated to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, signed a memorandum of understanding with one of the fledgling airlines, “Supreme” in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to be the nucleus of a large company in the sister country.
Amr Aboul-Enein, head of EgyptAir, stated that EgyptAir has developed ambitious plans to expand its network to reach new heights within the points of strategic importance in Africa.
This comes within the framework of the vision of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to enhance the presence in the African continent in various fields of air transport through Cairo’s hub airport, and in line with the directions of the state and its interest in supporting co-operation with African countries.
Discussion about this post