Taking delivery of the latest aircraft, the national carrier's new Boeing 737 was destined to be honoured carrying humanitarian aid to those injured in the revolution. Amirah Ibrahim reports For both EgyptAir crew and Boeing staff working at the Seattle airbase, the delivery of the Boeing 737-800 is a very special experience. The Egyptian flag carrier is taking delivery of its newest aircraft to join the fleet as number 79. The lucky aircraft has been loaded with a special shipment, donations which included humanitarian aid sent by Egyptians living in Seattle to the heroes who made the new era for their beloved Egypt. The shipment which had been estimated to weigh four tons consists of 50 electric wheel chairs, electric scooters, medicines, food, clothes and some medical devices. "All the shipment is directed to those who sacrificed their personal lives to bring liberty to the Egyptian people," commented Rafaat Rashwan, an Egyptian engineer who lives in Seattle. "The Egyptians living here wanted to share with their families and friends in Egypt their moments of joy and sadness. Shipping the humanitarian aid could have been a great obstacle, but thanks to Allah we succeeded to send part of it and with the help of the national carrier we will be able to send the rest," he added. Configured to seat 24 passengers in business and 124 passengers in economy class, the Boeing 737-800 is number 18 in a deal signed between Boeing and EgyptAir five years ago which included the purchase of 20 aircraft of B777 and B737-800. "This is part of our community service programme which covers many activities inside Egypt, in cooperation with social bodies working in the field," explained . Hossam Kamal, EgyptAir chairman and CEO. The carrier has issued its annual report for the past year showing unprecedented losses which exceeded LE2 billion ($350 million). However, and according to Kamal, the carrier is working hard to survive the crisis which is hitting the whole Egyptian economy following the 25 January revolution last year. "We are determined to go on with the strategic plans to modernise the fleet. The current crisis is not the responsibility of the management or staff, it is our responsibility to do all our best to help the national carrier to overcome the tough time and to heal," Kamal added. Taking responsibility of the shipment, the American Scientific Engineers Corporation managed the process of collecting the donations and purchasing the equipment. "The families of Egyptians working in northwestern America and Canada, at Boeing and Microsoft corporations, contributed to the donations which included scientific reference books presented to the Engineering Academy," stated Hatem Ayad, corporation chairman who joined the humanitarian aid from Seattle aboard EgyptAir's new aircraft. Boeing officials welcomed the request by EgyptAir to allow the humanitarian aid being sent aboard its new plane. "We are proud and happy at Boeing to contribute to this charitable effort along with our dear client EgyptAir and the American Scientific Engineers Corporation. To help sending this aid to the Egyptian people, who attracted the admire of the whole world , is a special honour for us," stated Liz Worman, Boeing deputy head for corporation communication. "The whole humanitarian aid collected exceeds nine tons in weight; thus we could not ship it all in one aircraft. The B737 is a medium body aircraft and thus the shipment has to be divided. Only four tons were shipped and the rest will follow with the coming scheduled deliveries to the Egyptian carrier," commented Worman. As the new B737 touched down at Cairo International, airport workers and airline staff moved forward to help downloading the shipment which was received by representatives from two charitable NGOs: Risallah and Misr Al-Amal. Both associations are to supervise distributing the aid to those most deserving in accordance with case studies prepared by their specialists.
