The annual reports of major air transport components in Egypt have shown serious damage to the sector which has been hit badly by the political crisis that broke out a year ago. Amirah Ibrahim reports Last week, the two major affiliated companies to the Aviation Ministry invited members of their general assemblies to review the fiscal year reports and the work results. The meetings were attended by aviation minister, Hussein Massoud, Chairman of the HCAAN Hasan Rashed, Chairman of the Holding company of EgyptAir, board members and officials representing governmental bodies monitoring the financial performance including the Central Accounting Authority, the Ministry of Finance and labour representatives. The national carrier EgyptAir held the first general assembly for its affiliated companies. The Holding company of EgyptAir has ten affiliated companies, five of which had their GM last week. Massoud attended the meeting along with EgyptAir Chairman Hossam Kamal, heads of general assemblies of affiliated companies and representatives of governmental monitoring bodies. Kamal received the performance reports of five companies: Maintenance and Technical works, In-Flight Services, Cargo, Domestic Airlines Express and Integrated Industries. "The work results showed no profits surplus in comparing to the results of the previous fiscal year 2009/2010 while others hit losses," explained Kamal. "In spite of deteriorating economic conditions that hit the whole business in the country, as well as serious turbulences which affected the industry over the second half of the fiscal year 2010/2011, we were able to overcome the crisis so far," Kamal added. He highlighted that the carrier had had a very good record regarding the financial performance in paying back its debts at scheduled dates. The carrier also did not cancel plans to modernise and upgrade the fleet. " We took delivery of three A330 during the year and also we continue receiving the B737-800 fleet. We are optimistic we can overcome the loses when political stability comes true ," Kamal added. The national carrier will have the general meetings for the other five companies in mid-January. The Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation (HCAAN) which supervises five companies running airport businesses in Egypt, all state-owned, reviewed the financial work of the fiscal year which ended on 30 June 2011. The report showed the total work of the holding company hitting a surplus of LE509.9 million, which is LE226.4 million behind the previous year, a 30.7 per cent decrease of revenues. Major projects carried out by airports during the financial plan over five years (2007/2012) are estimated at a value of LE11.8 billion. The projects as shown covered developing of airports' facilities, air navigation systems and IT systems. The government targets expanding the total capacity of state owned airports to reach 82 million passengers per annum by 2014. During the fiscal year 2010/2011, Cairo International Company, one of the affiliated companies, completed the construction of three major projects which aim to increase the capacity of the capital's airport. A new extended runway, a multi-storey garage and a seasonal terminal building for Hajj and Omrah were added to the old airport. The airport also added a new apron control tower. The northern city of Alexandria has got a state of the art terminal building for its Borg Al-Arab airport which has replaced its old Al-Nozha airport. Assiut airport which serves middle Egypt has got a new terminal building also. The control towers at both airports have been upgraded as well. The report also indicated there are projects under construction and yet to be completed. These projects included the automated passenger mover, upgrading vehicle park area of TB1, expansion and upgrade of TB2 and cargo village.
