Amirah Ibrahim reports on the evacuation of Egyptians from Tunisia While many governments rushed to evacuate their citizens from Tunisia following violent unrest stranded Egyptians waited for days before being transferred back home. An exceptional flight on Monday returned with dozens of Egyptians yet additional flights remain suspended for security reasons. The national carrier EgyptAir, which operates four flights weekly to Tunisia, suspended operations when airports were closed on Friday. On Saturday, a day after president Zein Al-Abidine bin Ali fled to Saudi Arabia, the Tunisian government reopened the country's airspace but flights to Egypt remained on hold, leaving hundreds of passengers behind. EgyptAir did not have a scheduled flight on Friday and so avoided leaving one of its aircraft grounded at Tunis Airport. That meant passengers who rushed to the airport on Saturday did not find a plane and had to spend days and nights at the airport. "Due to the unrest airport employees are restricted to working limited hours, from 12 to 4pm," said Captain Alaa Ashour, EgyptAir's chairman and CEO. "We could not operate our regular schedule because flights from Tunis are scheduled in the evening." "Other governments cared about their citizens unlike ours," said one Egyptian who contacted a TV talk show. "The airport is open and planes from everywhere land and carry passengers. Only the Egyptians are left behind," he complained. EgyptAir diverted all its passengers to Tunisia to neighbouring destinations, mainly Tripoli and Benghazi. "In case of natural disasters and wars air carriers are not obliged to compensate passengers or cover the cost of their accommodation. However, we provided alternative bookings for our passengers in Tunisia and Egypt, even through Europe, without loading extra costs on the passengers," said Ashour. On Monday EgyptAir finally operated an exceptional flight to evacuate Egyptians from Tunisia. "We used a wide- body A340, seating 260 passengers instead of the medium body A320. Yet the aircraft returned with only 121 passengers, less than half its capacity." On arriving at Cairo International passengers were jubilant. "We are lucky. We could have been killed inside the airport," cried one of the passengers. "Armed militias raided the airport last night but the army aborted the attack," said another passenger. The Egyptian plane landed at 4pm at Tunis and finished boarding procedures at 5pm. "We were held for 90 minutes inside the buses waiting for bus drivers to pick us up from the departure hall to the aircraft," reported one of the returnees. "We provided the flight with extra fuel and meals from Egypt so that it could avoid any delays on the ground," Ashour explained. On Tuesday the airline decided to modify its operation schedule, moving its flights from evening to morning. "We will reduce our operation from four flights to two flights weekly and operate them in the morning. This is a temporary modification. We will return to normal schedules when the current unrest is over," said Ashour.
