EgyptAir kicks a hot winter In an attempt to overcome loses caused by the unrest in Egypt, the national carrier EgyptAir announced a new promotional package for its customers to benefit from over the winter season. The airline offers a 20 per cent cut on its fare on all international routes. "The offer will be valid for customers who purchase their tickets during the period of two weeks from 17-31 October," explained Yaser El-Ramly, EgyptAir manager Commercial Sector. "The purchased tickets should be used maximum by the end of March," El-Ramly added. According to El-Ramly, more packages and offers are being prepared and subject to a near announcement for domestic and regional routes. "The offer is not applicable for Omra and Hajj flights, which are the busiest among our network over the coming two months." Back to Benghazi EgyptAir has announced plans to launch scheduled flights to Libya's second largest city of Benghazi on November 1. Operating four-times-a-week non-stop from Cairo, Benghazi route will be the only to connect Libya to Egypt on wait for Tripoli airport to complete repair works. EgyptAir initially operated services to Benghazi and the capital Tripoli, the laterer is currently suspended due to the political situation, but are expected to resume soon. EgyptAir commercial manager, Yasser El Ramly praised the coming resumption as an essential to activate a vital route. "Libyan destinations are distinguished on our network regarding the distinguished relations with Libyan people," El-Ramly explained. "We are determined to give a hand to help our brothers in Libya overcome the current situation and provide them the required transport accessibility with the world," he added. EgyptAir will operate the route with an Airbus A320 aircraft, a medium range aircraft for a two hours flight, or less. A crowded Hajj week Waves of pilgrims still rush to Egyptian airports to join the Hajj season at the holy lands of Saudi Arabia. At Cairo International, authorities are highly alerted as operation of Hajj flights is at its peak at the airport's two terminal buildings allocated for the Saudi carrier and the seasonal terminal allocated for the national carrier EgyptAir Hajj flights. "Our fleet by last Tuesday has transferred 32�ö860 pilgrims through 143 flights; 87 flights to Jeddah and 56 flights to Madinah," said Ayman Nasr, EgyptAir airlines chairman. As for yesterday and today, Nasr explained that the airline was scheduled to operate 23 flights on Wednesday: 14 to Jeddah and nine to Madinah, and 23 flights today: 18 to Jeddah and 5 to Madinah. "The scheduled flights will operate mainly from Alexandria and Cairo. A total of 11,155 pilgrims will be transferred over the two days," Nasr added. IATA Confidence expectations down to 2009 The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released last week its monthly airline business confidence index, which showed airline confidence fell with expectations for profitability over the next 12 months down to levels last seen in the first half of 2009. According to IATA, this low level of confidence has in the past been consistent with the industry performing a little better than breakeven. Meanwhile, yield expectations have also declined, with 45 per cent of those surveyed expecting cargo yields to fall and airline confidence in passenger yield now at their lowest since early 2009. On the other hand, IATA launched Simplified Interline Settlement (SIS) which removes paper documents from the airline industry's interline billing and settlement process. When fully implemented in 2013, SIS is expected to eliminate paper invoice creation and distribution between airlines and provide annual cost savings to the industry of $450-700 million through the elimination of paper, mail charges, courier fees, lost documents, internal paper handling, and system and process efficiencies. Also it will provide environmental benefits through the elimination of paper documentation and the need to transport it. Approximately 160 tons of invoices and supporting documents are shipped among airlines around the world each year to support the industry's interline billing and settlement process. In addition, activities such as invoicing and dispute handling are still largely paper-driven, involving substantial manual effort. With SIS, a carrier will submit a single electronic billing file that will be converted into an invoice and a settlement file, sent to the billed airline, and cleared and settled through the IATA Clearing House (ICH). This avoids duplication and improves efficiencies. The solution is tightly integrated into a single platform called Integrated Settlement. All 350 ICH members will benefit from the new service for the $50 billion annually that is processed in the system. "SIS is the culmination of three years of hard work and close collaboration between the airline industry, IATA's expert team and the technology supplier Kale Consultants. SIS will modernise the industry's back office and make interline billing and settlement a fast, standardised electronic process that will bring efficiencies and reduced costs to the entire industry," said Aleksander Popovich, IATA's senior vice president Industry Distribution and Financial Services.
