By Mohamed Attia
National air carrier organises 23,000 flights in 2021
Despite the difficult economic situation in the air transport sector in the recent period due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which caused economic damage to the air transport industry to the extent that some airlines declared bankruptcy due to the pandemic, which is the worst crisis in the global air transport sector since the events of World War II.
Despite this tragic situation for the sector, EgyptAir was able, during this difficult period, to overcome the crisis by a large percentage according to reports announced by the International Aviation Organisation (IATA) of the negative impact of travel movement due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The air transport sector across the world witnessed a decrease in the volume of operating flights for the year 2020 by up to 24.4% of the volume of air traffic before the outbreak of coronavirus, but EgyptAir managed to operate more than 14,000 flights at a rate of 39.6% of their normal operating schedules, achieving an increase of 15.2% over IATA reports.
The percentage of global passenger traffic in 2021, according to IATA reports, decreased by 46.6% of the movement volume compared to the period before the coronavirus.
Ambitious Plan
EgyptAir’s positive rates coincide with an ambitious plan pursued by EgyptAir headed by pilot Amr Aboul-Enein and under the directives of Minister of Civil Aviation Mohamed Manar during the next five years.
It is also planned that the EgyptAir network will reach 96 cities in 2026 instead of 65 cities currently, with an increase of 47%, when the planes to be agreed upon in the coming period are available.
The national air carrier also plans to increase its fleet for most wide and medium models through negotiations with manufacturers and leased companies to meet their needs so that the company can open new destinations in Africa, America and the Far East and increase the frequencies for those destinations.
The company decided to operate the Kinshasa line next March and Dublin in Ireland in June 2022.
The company also completed the establishment of a new low-cost activity belonging to EgyptAir targeting new segments of Egyptians and foreigners and covering new points in the network.
For his part, Amr Nabil, President of EgyptAir Airlines, confirmed that the company is always keen to upgrade all its activities and services to serve the Egyptian economy, indicating that the company has set its sights on a plan to modernise the air cargo fleet in addition to modernise the fleet of passenger planes through a specific plan.
This comes with a view to expanding the movement of goods by air by increasing the number of cargo planes or exploiting the spaces available on passenger planes to meet the growing demand for Egyptian exports.
He added that during the outbreak of the coronavirus, air freight activity witnessed a remarkable increase compared to before the pandemic, as Egyptian exports, especially agricultural crops of fruits and vegetables, were a great demand in the European market and the Far East.
Regarding the field of activating the incoming foreign tourism movement to Egypt, pilot Nabil added that, in co-operation between the Ministries of Civil Aviation and Tourism and Antiquities, an initiative was launched to integrate beach and recreational tourism with the cultural tourism product by linking the Nile Valley cities with the Egyptian tourist cities each other to facilitate the tourist to undertake beach and cultural tourism in one programme.
EgyptAir operated a direct line between Luxor and Sharm El Sheikh and studied the operation of other lines according to the volume of demand.
“We also operated the Luxor/London line after a hiatus of years, as well as the Luxor/Madrid, Prague/Hurghada and Budapest/Hurghada lines to connect the European capitals with the tourist cities directly,” he said.
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