The aviation minister stressed that the global financial crisis will not have a detrimental effect on the transport business in Egypt, Amirah Ibrahim reports "Whatever the decrease in passenger numbers, the Egyptian aviation sector will not collapse," Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq told a press conference on Tuesday. "The figures showed that between January and September 2008, the growth rate jumped to 22 per cent," Shafiq said. "However, as the global credit crunch hit the world's aviation business and industry, the growth rate declined over the past three months to 16 per cent. We expect more shrinkage in air transport in Egypt, reducing the growth rate to 12 per cent," he added. "But even if it gets worse and passenger numbers decline -- as we are part of the world, of course -- we are still far from being seriously affected," Shafiq said. Shafiq said the national carrier had registered a load factor of 68 per cent during 2008, a rate which decreased to 63 per cent over the last few months. "We expect an even further decline to 61 per cent. This is not our previous optimistic figure for 2009 when we hoped to achieve a 72 per cent load factor. Yet, it is only one per cent less than the figure of 2008. Thus I can say the aviation sector is not in such a bad situation despite the global financial crisis." Shafiq refused demands to cut the cost of flight tickets. "The air transport business is shrinking. People are opting not to travel a lot for leisure or business which is shrinking as well. It is not wise to reduce the price while we are already suffering a decrease in passengers." He called on Egyptian travellers to adopt more advanced attitudes in planning their travels beforehand so that they can get cheaper tickets. Shafiq said the aviation sector runs its activities independently and does not receive any financial support from the government. "We persuaded the Finance Ministry not to take the annual surplus that both airports and the national carrier used to provide so that they use the money to help them overcome the crisis." Shafiq said a recent cut in taxes had been decided by the Finance Ministry which collects them. "This week, however, a new decree was issued re-imposing taxes on flight tickets." The minister said his administration was paying close attention to helping private airlines weather the crisis. "We are backing these airlines because they are part of the aviation business and market in Egypt. In the very near future, private airlines will obtain new exemptions in airports fees. Whatever helps them survive next to the national carrier will absolutely be done." He said his administration's plans to upgrade airports and the national carrier are going as scheduled. "Aircraft manufacturers are experiencing many cancellations by airlines which have asked to delay the delivery dates of their new planes, while many others cancelled previous orders for new purchases. We do not have such a situation. On the contrary, we took advantage of the situation to negotiate for better offers and better delivery dates of our previous orders." On the reasons behind the delay of operating the new terminal at Cairo International Airport, TB3, which was officially inaugurated three months ago, Shafiq said there had been no technical problems in the air. "Actually, the schedule of operation is on time. To operate a new terminal beginning with employing the staff and ending with the first flight should take between four to six months. We learned a lot from the troubled opening of Heathrow Airport's new TB5 last year that we should take time to examine all facilities before operation and thus guarantee fewer problems, if any." Shafiq said the final operation, to begin the last week of April, will include operating one international flight for starters, moving all domestic flights to the new terminal, and moving the entire operation of EgyptAir and Star Alliance member airlines by mid-May.
