By Mohamed Attia
Egypt’s Ministry of Civil Aviation, under the leadership of Minister Mohamed Abbas, has developed a strategy to attract more tourists to Egypt through several factors, being the first is the coordination with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Minister Abbas was keen to hold regular meetings with Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Eissa, to discuss means to widen the horizons of co-operation between the two ministries during the coming period. The two ministers reviewed a number of important files, including mechanisms to increase tourism movement and operating a low-cost aviation, which contributes to stimulating air movement to Egypt.
The discussions also dealt with the importance of launching several initiatives to stimulate air traffic and reinvigorate tourism, including low-cost flights, which has a significant role in opening new tourist destinations and attracting inbound tourism to Egypt from various countries of the world.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has also taken a package of measures to revitalise air and tourism sectors, including the exemption of foreign airlines from paying extra fees until April 30, 2023.
The second factor focuses on the continuation of developing airports system nationwide, headed by Eng. Mohamed Saeed Mahrous, Chairman of the Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation.
The Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport has been developed with the aim of increasing its capacity to 10 million passengers a year, instead of 7.5 million.
The ministry has also devised a comprehensive plan to upgrade the Sphinx International Airport to increase its capacity to 1.2 million passengers annually, which contributes to linking tourist destinations with archaeological sites.
In addition, the ministry is working on raising the efficiency and development of Hurghada International Airport, raising its capacity to 23 million passengers, as well as the upgrade of St. Catherine airport to increase its capacity to 800,000 passengers annually.
As for the third axis, there is an overall plan to increase the fleet of the national air carrier, EgyptAir, and expand its air network, under Eng. Yehia Zakaria, Chairman and CEO of EgyptAir Holding Company.
The plan also included the increase of international flights and seat capacity.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation is also working on expanding the fleet of its subsidiary Air Cairo, headed by Hussein El-Sherif. This step contributes to attracting more tourists to Egypt. Air Cairo is a low-fare airline, affiliated to Egypt Air.
The fourth factor depends on taking a number of initiatives and advertising campaigns to activate tourism movement.
Air Cairo, the low-cost arm of EgyptAir, has conducted a tour for representatives of 140 German travel companies, during which they visited marvelous tourist landmarks in Cairo and Hurghada.
The tourists visited the Great Pyramids area and the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.
The tour was aimed to promote tourism movement in the German market, which is one of the largest markets attracting tourists to Egypt.
It is expected that Air Cairo flights to Germany will increase during the next summer season 2023 to reach 82 flights per week linking each of Hurghada, Marsa Alam and Sharm el-Sheikh airports to 13 German cities, compared to 62 flights per week organized by Air Cairo during the summer season in 2022.
Board Chairman of Air Cairo, Hussein Sherif, stated that the introductory tour of German travel companies came to stimulate air and tourism movement from all over the world, in addition to opening fresh markets to reinvigorate air movement and increase the number of tourists coming to Egypt.
He pointed out that the step represents a great opportunity to promote Egyptian tourist destinations and learn about their advantages.
Sherif noted that Air Cairo would organise, during the first half of December, a second introductory tour for representatives of 65 other travel and tourism companies in Germany to visit wonderful tourist destinations in Cairo, Hurghada, Luxor and Aswan.
For their part, representatives of German travel companies voiced their appreciation for visiting Egypt and being acquainted with the most prominent features of the ancient Egyptian civilisation.
They also hailed the quality of services provided by Air Cairo, which currently operates 30 flights per week to nine German cities, in addition to flights from Austrian capital Vienna, Zurich and Basel in Switzerland
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