EgyptAir's domestic fleet is about to fly to a very hot spot. Amirah Ibrahim joins the first flight to Sharq Al-Owenat In an unprecedented step, the national carrier EgyptAir has signed a MOR with Emirate investors to operate a new domestic route between Cairo and Sharq Al-Owenat in the New Valley Governorate near the southwest border. The new service is scheduled to serve the growing agricultural and industrial investments in this promising area. Officials from EgyptAir Express, the domestic and regional airlines affiliated to the national carrier, and UAE's Janan Investments Company signed the agreement at Sharq Al-Owenat airport on Monday. Under the agreement, the airline will operate the new service on a regular basis with one weekly flight for the duration of one year. The Sharq Al-Owenat project is part of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's election programme over the past decade. It was introduced as the hope for future generations to escape the crowded and limited valley of the river Nile and establish new communities in the western desert. The project aims to attract investors to cultivate 240,000 feddanes in Sharq Al-Owenat by 2017. EgyptAir Chairman and CEO Tawfiq Asi explained that the new service had a good possibility to grow into a regular domestic destination as part of the carrier's domestic network. "The agreement reflects the national role that EgyptAir has been playing to boost the Egyptian economy since its establishment more than 75 years ago," stated Asi. "The fact is that as a flag carrier, our company has a social and national responsibility to work in cooperation with the government's developing projects, particularly in southern Egypt," he added. Asi indicated that operating the new service to such an isolated area would encourage more investors to participate in developing the area on a profit-making basis. The EgyptAir Express ERJ170 jet took almost two hours to reach the small airport of Sharq Al-Owenat. The LE20 million airport was constructed in three months in 2003 to meet the needs of investors to bring equipment and to export crops. It occupies 36 square kilometres, with a main runway of 3500 m and a tarmac that can serve eight aircrafts. A simple terminal building can serve passengers at a rate of a hundred per hour. No automatic luggage conveyor is provided inside the terminal. The runway is not equipped with lights for night operation. Janan Investment Co. is one of the leading Arab investment companies with a large scale agricultural and industrial business at Sharq Al-Owenat. After the signing, Janan's Chairman, Mohamed Rashed Al-Oteiba explained that the new service 'would facilitate transferring experts, technicians, engineers, workers and equipments to the project area as well as transferring products from Sharq al-Owenat to Cairo for export'. According to EgyptAir Express Chairman Safiey Eddin Badawi, the new service will be operated every Sunday, begining on 27 of September. "Operating costs are to be covered under a 'share of risk' pattern where the Emirate partner covers the full costs of each trip, even if the flight is underused," explained Badawi. "In fact it's the first time for our company to operate such service to serve industrial and agricultural investors. We have two successful services operating on a 'share of risk' basis where investors pay the full costs of each trip. But both serve tourism projects." EgyptAir Express operates two regular routes, the first between Cairo and Mersa Alam with five flights weekly, and the second between Cairo and Mersa Matrouh with two flights weekly. Both services are covered by investors.
