By Mohamed Attia
The Ministry of Civil Aviation, under the leadership of Minister of Civil Aviation Mohamed Manar, is seeking during the current period to expand its activities within the African continent, as part of the Egyptian political leadership’s directives to enhance co-operation and intensify its presence within the continent by building new strategic partnerships with African brothers.
The new activities of the Ministry of 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.
As of March 27, EgyptAir will launch a new line to the capital of the Democratic Republic of 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 the company with four planes 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.
That allows EgyptAir to penetrate and expand in Africa and cover new African points that it did not reach, which is a pioneering step to strengthen relations with the African continent.
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 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.
The memorandum of understanding was signed by the Ghanian minister of aviation Joseph Kofi Ada and Hassan Mounir, assistant head of EgyptAir, representing the Egyptian side.
EgyptAir also received a Senegalese delegation headed by Ibrahim Kan, CEO of Senegal Airlines.
Also, EgyptAir for Maintenance and Engineering, headed by Engineer Yehia Zakaria, inaugurated a new centre for aircraft maintenance 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 as a first step towards targeting many new customers.
On the other hand, Air Cairo, affiliated to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, signed a memorandum of partnership with one of the airlines in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to be the nucleus of a large company in the sister country.
By activating these agreements, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has succeeded, through its two companies, EgyptAir and Air Cairo, in acquiring most of the points of the African continent.
In the south, there is a partnership with Supreme Airlines in South Sudan while in the east there is a memorandum with the Sudanese Airlines Company and in the west of Africa there is a partnership with Ghana Company.
Pilot Amr Abul-Enein, head of EgyptAir, stated that EgyptAir has developed ambitious plans to expand its network within the framework of the vision of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to enhance the presence within 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.
EgyptAir plans to reach new heights within the points of strategic importance in Africa to provide numerous travel options for customers on board the latest models of aircraft.
Abul-Enein added that EgyptAir is in the ranks of international airlines, especially in the Middle East and Africa, which is keen to provide more new points through its network, which reaches more than 70 direct points around the world, including 19 points in Africa.
This comes in addition to more than 40 other point by sharing the code despite the repercussions of the pandemic, which affected the air transport industry.
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