Despite serious losses, the national carrier is fighting to overcome consequences of the political crisis with hopes on a promising Hajj season to begin soon. Amirah Ibrahim reports. The political crisis goes on, hitting the travel business, and particularly air travel to the country. The national carrier which seizes the biggest share of air transport movement through Egypt is thus the airline most affected by the drop. In accordance, the total profits for the fiscal year 2010/2011 have dropped to LE120 million comparing to LE300 million in 2009/2010. Massoud indicated that the airline is continuing to take delivery of the new fleet of Boeing 787-800 and Airbus 320 despite the current reduction of air travel to Egypt. The airline revealed its new operational schedule for the winter season which begins mid-October till the end of March. "We plan to operate 511 flights weekly, compared to 493 flights last year," announced Ayman Nasr, chairman of EgyptAir. "This represents a 14 per cent increase of operations in the Middle East region and a 48 per cent increase of traffic from regional airports to outlying points," Nasr added. The airline however could have manage the crisis relying on Egyptian travel seasons, which had been busy since the summer with Egyptian families abroad returning from summer vacations, for the Omrah season which lasted for three months and finally the Hajj season which represents a considerable amount of the carrier's business. According to Massoud, the carrier for the second year in a row would not have to rent additional aircraft to help the fleet transfer pilgrims. EgytpAir normally transfers up to 80-90,000 pilgrims, including 10,000 transit pilgrims. This is thanks to an expansion plan of the fleet, which increased the fleet to 60 medium and wide-body aircraft and 12 small Embraer planes being operated to serve the domestic and regional network. This year however, the number is subject to a decrease to 76,000 including transit pilgrims. According to Yasser El-Ramly, commercial manager, the airline is committed to selling tickets at the prices it had previously announced. "We only had to go up 6 per cent compared to last year's prices,' El-Ramly explained. "This is despite an increase of fuel prices by 50 per cent over the past few months. Besides, Saudi airports have added more fees on services which have burdened airlines," he added. The airlines started selling Hajj tickets early this month and will continue till 31 October. "We have assigned four offices in Cairo to sell Hajj flight tickets: at Shubra, Opera Square, the Police Academy in Abbasiya and at the Social Affairs Ministry," El-Ramly stated. Two weeks ago, Cairo International Airport celebrated the inauguration of a new seasonal terminal allocated to Hajj and Omrah pilgrims. Prime Minister Essam Sharaf along with Aviation Minister Lotfi Kamal and a number of Cabinet members attended the event. Earlier this week, EgyptAir launched its first flight to Jeddah from the new Hajj terminal. All flights to Madinah and Jeddah are to be operated from the new terminal from now on. According to Nasr, 320 flights are scheduled for the Hajj season; 215 flights to Jeddah and 105 to Madinah. Return flights are scheduled to begin on 10th November from Jeddah and 12 November from Madinah.
