Egyptair

Egyptair

File:EgyptAir-Logo 08.jpg
IATA ICAO Call sign MS MSR EgyptAir
Founded	1932 (as Misr Airwork)
Hubs	Cairo International Airport
Focus cities	Alexandria El Nouzha Airport Hurghada International Airport Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport Luxor International Airport
Frequent-flyer program	EgyptAir Plus
Alliance	Star Alliance
Fleet size	52 (+ 31 orders and 2 options)
Destinations	75
Parent company	EgyptAir Holding Company
Headquarters	Cairo, Egypt
Key people	Capt. Tawfik Assy (Chairman of EgyptAir Holding Company) Capt. Sherif Saad Eldin Galal (Chairman of EgyptAir Airlines) Capt. Safy (Chairman of EgyptAir Express)
Website	http://www.egyptair.com

EgyptAir (IATA Code: MS) (Arabic: مصر للطيران, Template:ArabDIN) is the flag carrier airline of the Arab Republic of Egypt and a member of Star Alliance. The airline operates through its main hub at Cairo International Airport. It is wholly owned by the Egyptian government, with scheduled passenger and freighter services to more than 70 destinations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, the USA, and Canada, as well as running an extensive domestic operations.

EgyptAir is Africa's second-largest airline. The airline joined Star Alliance on July 11 2008, becoming the first Middle Eastern member of the alliance.

The airline's logo is Horus, the sky deity in ancient Egyptian mythology, who is usually depicted as a falcon or a man with the head of a falcon. The airline has taken Horus as its logo because of it ancient symbolism as a winged god of the sun.

History

EgyptAir was established on May 7, 1932, and started commercial operations in August 1933 using a Spartan Cruiser on the Cairo-Alexandria route. The plane could only seat four, including a pilot and co-pilot. It was founded in association with the Airwork Company under the name of Misr Airwork.

EgyptAir is the 2nd largest airline on the African continent (exceeded only by South African Airways) and is the 4th largest Arab airline (exceeded by Emirates Airline, Qatar Airways and Saudi Arabian Airlines). However, in a historical sense the Egyptian national carrier had no rivals; with origins going back to 1932, it can claim to be the oldest airline servicing both Africa and the Arab world. Although several other airlines sprang up in Africa during the 1930s, no other airlines were developed in the Arab world until the mid-1940s. In addition, until the growth of Saudi Arabia as a result of the oil boom, the only Arab airline to even rival EgyptAir in size was Lebanon's Middle East Airline. The company's network extends throughout Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, Africa, Australia, India, and North America.

EgyptAir's early start can be traced back to the pivotal position played by Egypt in the development of Britain's imperial air routes. Within a few months of the armistice that brought World War I to an end, the Royal Air Force (RAF) was dispatching ground surveys parties to establish both the routes and the basic route facilities for future air services southward from Cairo to Cape Town and eastward from Cairo to Baghdad. By the mid-1920s the RAF was operating regular services on both these routes. In 1925 the British government agreed with newly formed Imperial Airways that the airline would gradually take over from the military. This resulted in Imperial Airways starting regular service from Egypt to Iraq in 1927, extending to India via Iran in 1929. Service from Egypt to British East Africa started in 1931. Both services connected in Egypt with Imperial Airways service between the United Kingdom and Egypt.

By 1931 Egypt had developed into a vital hub on Britain's Imperial network. At this time a prominent Egyptian economist, Talaat Harb, realized that the importance of Egypt as a hub was soon to be significantly increased by two new developments: in 1932 Imperial Airways was due to extend its African service the entire length of the continent from Cairo to Cape Town; and the airline expected to transform its Indian service by shifting the route from the politically difficult Iranian shore of the Persian Gulf to the friendlier Trucial Coast on the Gulf's southern shore.

Both these developments did indeed take place in 1932, by which time Talaat Harb had discovered a British partner in the form of Airwork, a well-established company with wide interests in aviation and with ambitions to develop regular air services alongside Imperial Airways. This led to the formation in May 1932 of Misr Airwork, with the Misr Bank of Cairo putting up 85 percent of the initial E£20,000 capital, Airwork contributing ten percent, and Talaat Harb and his Egyptian colleagues furnishing five percent.

The first step by the new company was to set up a flight school at the rapidly developing Almaza airport on the outskirts of Cairo at Heliopolis. Airwork was by this time heavily involved in pioneering the development of flight training programs in Britain and Talaat Harb was enthusiastic to encourage airmindedness in Egypt. A small fleet of De Havilland Gypsy Moth aircraft were imported and these provided the foundation on which Egypt's airline industry was to develop. In the summer of 1933 Airwork arranged the import of a Spartan Cruiser on temporary lease from the fleet of the parent company.

In August 1933 this aircraft ran a daily service from Cairo to the western port of Mersa Matruh via Alexandria. Strong traffic demand resulted within one month in an extra daily flight being added between Cairo and Alexandria. With the start of the winter tourist season a new route up the Nile Valley from Cairo to Aswan via Assiut and Luxor was opened in December 1933 on a twice-weekly basis.

The following year Misr Airwork launched its first international service to Lydda and Haifa in Palestine. Further expansion took place in 1936 with a new service to Cyprus and Baghdad. By this time the airline was operating with its own all-De Havilland fleet, its flagship being the 14-seat DH86 Express, of which it had four. This was a period when tourism rapidly developed in Egypt and Palestine, due in part to promotion by the pioneering travel agency Thomas Cook of the newly opened services of Imperial Airways.

With the outbreak of World War II, control and ownership of the airline was taken over by the Egyptian government, which continued to operate over the same network but at a much increased frequency under the new name Misr Airlines. Immediately after the war the Egyptian airline, still under government control, reverted to civil operations, its first priority being to re-establish the flight training program using a fleet of ten newly acquired U.S.-built Beechcraft. By early 1948 the prewar network had been re-established but it soon became evident that larger aircraft would be needed, if only to compete with the DC-3s rapidly coming into widespread operation in the region.

Regularly scheduled service was resumed in 1949 when the airline took delivery of a fleet of ten Vickers Viking aircraft. These twin-engine 28-seat aircraft allowed rapid expansion, with the route network doubling between 1949 and 1952 and the number of staff climbing to 1,000. It was at this time that the airline adopted the name Misrair. During this period Misrair continued to work closely with its old partner Airwork (from which it had acquired the Viking fleet and with which it maintained close technical relations). Airwork continued to be additionally active in the region, forming Sudan Airways in 1946. Shortly afterwards Airwork launched its own "colonial coach" scheduled services to East and Central Africa, using its own fleet of Vikings, with stops at Cairo and Khartoum.

July 1952 was a turning point for the airline--and for Egypt-- marking the successful military coup that ended the rule of King Farouk and which led in 1953 to the country becoming a republic, at first under Major General Mohammed Naguib and from 1956 under Gamal Abdel Nasser. Under Naguib the airline stagnated. New routes were introduced and then suspended. New aircraft types were introduced but then withdrawn. But with the assumption of power by Nasser a renewed priority was given to the development of the national airline.

The first step was the placing in service in 1956 of a fleet of British-built Vickers Viscounts. The next step was the purchase in 1958 of a fleet of DC-3s to allow modernization of the domestic network within Egypt. The final step was the purchase in 1960 of a fleet of De Havilland Comet 4 jets for long-haul services. Arrival of the Viscounts allowed Misrair to fulfill a longstanding ambition to open service to London. This soon developed into the airline's single most important destination. Similarly, arrival of the Comet jets allowed another ambition to be realized with the opening of service in 1961 to Bombay and in 1962 to Tokyo.

The year 1962 was to prove another turning point in the airline's history. Until then Misrair had a consistent record of profitability, even in the lean mid-1950s, the only exception being the revolution in 1952. However, in 1962 the company experienced a massive loss of revenues. There were several reasons for this change in fortune, including very low yield traffic on the Bombay route, a highly competitive Tokyo service, and difficulty pitting the Comet against the Boeing 707s and Douglas DC-8s then coming into general service on long-haul routes.

But a more fundamental problem was the marketing situation that resulted from the political decision in 1958 to merge the airlines of Egypt, Syria, and Iraq into a single new enterprise to be called United Arab Airlines, this being the joint airline of the newly formed United Arab Republic (UAR). Syria joined Egypt to form the UAR in 1958 but withdrew in 1961; Iraq never joined.

Although the Egyptian government formally restructured and renamed Misrair as United Arab Airlines early in 1960, it was only later that year that the Syrian government finally agreed to the merger of Syrian Airways, the main problem having been the reluctance of privately owned Syrian Airways' shareholders to accept the merger terms. Nevertheless, during the previous two-year negotiation period several useful developments had taken place as a result of the planned merger, including the opening of a much-needed direct service between Cairo and Aleppo and the introduction of promotional fares to generate travel between Egypt and Syria. From early 1961 the operations of the Egyptian and Syrian partners were indeed merged under the banner of UAA. But this arrangement failed to survive to the end of the year, for by October Syria had pulled out of the union and had created a new government-owned Syrian Arab Airline, which quickly restored the network operated by its private-enterprise predecessor.

Whereas Syrian Arab then embarked on a program of modest expansion and modernization--its first trunk route to Europe was opened in 1963--UAA (as Misrair was then called) was plunged into financial crisis. The name change and the erratic political circumstances with which it was associated created a major marketing problem. Another problem was the airline's dubious safety record following four fatal accidents--involving the loss of two Comet 4s and two DC-3s--in a 14-month period in 1961-62.

An underlying problem was Egypt's shift towards socialism and its alliance with the USSR, which had a negative effect on tourism but it also presented the airline with particular problems. Difficulty in raising Western loan funds resulted in an order for Boeing 707s, originally placed in 1961, never being completed. There were chronic foreign-exchange difficulties in maintaining adequate spares for the Comet and Viscount fleets. Yet another issue was the uncontrolled escalation in staff numbers which soon developed into a major managerial problem.

Matters were brought to a head by the national disaster of the Six-Day War in 1967. Although this was a humiliating experience in military terms, which inflicted a period of extreme austerity on the country as a whole, the actual defeat precipitated changes that gradually worked to the advantage of Egypt and its national airline. In the immediate aftermath of the war there was a surge of Arab sympathy for Egypt. Several Arab governments even proclaimed that their citizens should relieve Egypt's plight by going there on holiday. As a result the number of Arab visitors to Egypt by 1970 had recovered to the prewar record level of 1966. Arab funds were also forthcoming to allow the belated purchase in 1968 of the airline's first 707s, thus allowing the return of service to Tokyo and an overdue upgrading of the quality of service.

EgyptAir Boeing 707 in Malta in early 1970s–1996 livery.

Unfortunately for the airline a new political problem now developed with the launch of plans to merge--or to at least integrate--Egypt and its two African neighbors, Libya and Sudan. This soon led to the idea of a new United Arab Airlines which would combine the Egyptian national airline with Libyan Arab Airline and Sudan Airways. Were it not for the political difficulties that finally wrecked the scheme, on economic grounds alone this incarnation of the UAA made much more sense than its ill-fated predecessor. The three member airlines were all outfitting their fleets with 707s and would benefit from commonality of equipment. The route networks of the three substantially overlapped and could benefit from rationalization both of services and of ground facilities. By comparison with most European carriers, each of the three were disadvantaged by the low frequency of flights, typically only two or three flights a week on any one route. In addition, by merging it would be possible to obtain better terms when negotiating traffic rights with foreign governments. This development would also have advanced Egyptian hopes of making Cairo the center for technical servicing of Boeing 707s throughout the Middle East.

By 1970 the project had already advanced to the point where plans were being prepared for joint overseas sales offices to replace the existing separate offices and for a joint overseas sales force. Looking forward, a joint operational program was being prepared whereby all European and Asian services would be based in Cairo, all North African services would be based in Tripoli, and all other African services on Khartoum. However, another event took place in 1970 that was to lead Egypt and its airline in a different direction: the coming to power of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. This almost immediately led to the final collapse of the political concept of the UAR and to the consequent adoption by the national airline in 1971 of the name it bears to this day, EgyptAir. Even more significantly, Sadat's appointment led to Egypt's success against Israel during the October War in 1973, the severance in 1974 of Egypt's special relationship with the USSR, and to the re-establishment of close relations between Egypt and the United States.

Despite these fundamental changes, continuing fears of war in the Middle East together with rising fears in the Middle East that Egypt had betrayed the Palestinian cause, imposed a severe brake on the development of trade and travel between Egypt and the outside world. In its most extreme form--after the Camp David accord between Egypt and Israel--Egypt had to endure a virtual boycott by the wealthy oil-producing states of the Gulf, which had a drastic impact on the airline. With a relatively slow-growing traffic base, the airline continued to maintain its services with a mixed fleet of Boeing 707s and early model 737s. Meanwhile it suffered the indignity of seeing itself being overtaken by Saudia and IranAir and being threatened by better-equipped rivals such as Gulf Air.

Once again it was an external event which was to transform the situation facing EgyptAir. Following the assassination of Sadat in 1981, Hosni Mubarrak rose to lead the nation. Although Sadat had supported an open-door policy, seeking to promote foreign investment, he had failed to steer Egypt away from the socialist path favored by his predecessor. In contrast, Mubarrak realized that Western economic aid and investment would only flow into Egypt once it started moving towards a market economy.

Mubarrak was also interested in aviation and was concerned over the unimpressive performance of the national airline. At this time, sounds of public criticism of EgyptAir were starting to be heard and Mubarrak decided that strong leadership was needed. He invited a senior air force officer, Air Vice-Marshal Muhammed Rayan, with a solid knowledge of the technicalities of aviation and with a reputation for getting things done, to take over as chairman of EgyptAir.

Since his appointment, Rayan brought about a transformation in the airline. His first priority was to ensure that the airline was properly equipped. Starting with an order in 1981 for eight Airbus 300s, the airline emerged with a fleet of over 30 aircraft. Rayan resisted the temptation to embark on high-risk new routes, preferring instead to consolidate EgyptAir's regional base. He developed the airline's own terminal at Cairo, introduced computerized reservations, and imposed an ambitious training program for the airline's staff.

A move into a modern headquarters complex at the airport allowed staff to vacate much of the obsolete and inefficient accommodations to which they had been tied. EgyptAir also enacted a $30 million, multi-stage plan to create a regional maintenance facility.

Another appointment by President Mubarrak which proved of fundamental importance in the modernization of EgyptAir was the selection of Fouad Sultan as minister of Aviation and Tourism. With a background in merchant banking, and a belief in the market economy, Sultan masterminded the restructuring of Egypt's air transport industry to prepare for a more competitive international environment while at the same time weaning EgyptAir off the government protection it enjoyed in the past. Although EgyptAir was not subsidized and by law had to finance its own aircraft purchases, the government nevertheless fielded some criticism for protecting its flag carrier market at the expense of its privately owned domestic competition. Further, its workforce of 15,000 also seemed bloated to outside observers.

EgyptAir suffered one of the deadliest hijackings in history in November 1985, when terrorists took over a flight from Athens to Cairo. Sixty passengers were killed. After serving part of a jail term in Malta and living for several years in Africa, the surviving terrorist was captured and tried in the United States in the mid-1990s.

EgyptAir reported a loss of $33 million in the 1990-91 fiscal year, a year disrupted by the Persian Gulf War, which increased the cost of fuel and insurance and frightened travelers away from the Middle East (although EgyptAir spirited many Egyptians out of Kuwait and Iraq during the crisis). However, the carrier soon recovered, posting an equivalent gain for the first six months of 1992-93 as tourism in the area boomed. EgyptAir found extra capacity at the same time due to a postponed aircraft sale and the delivery of $2.4 billion worth of new aircraft. The arrival of the new planes necessitated massive retraining among more than 300 pilots.

In the spring of 1992, EgyptAir teamed with Kuwait Airways to create the charter carrier Sharouk ("Sunrise") Air. EgyptAir controlled 51 percent of the venture which eventually shut down in 2002 due to management differences between EgyptAir and Kuwait Airways. The defunct airline was replaced by Air Cairo in 2004.

Operations

EgyptAir is a state-owned company with special legislation permitting the management to operate as if the company were privately owned without any interference from the government. The company is self-financing without any financial backing by the Egyptian government.

File:Egyptair in the sky.jpg

An EgyptAir after taking off.

EgyptAir wholly owns EgyptAir Express and Air Sinai. The airline also has stakes in Air Cairo (40%) and Smart Aviation Company (20%). As of June 2007, EgyptAir Holding Company had 20,734 employees of which 7,600 worked in EgyptAir Airlines (the airline subsidiary of the group).

In 2004, EgyptAir became the first IOSA certified airline in the Middle East and Africa.

In 2006, Skytrax, the UK-based airline consultancy service, rated EgyptAir a 3 Star Quality Certified Airline.

In 2007, EgyptAir's passenger traffic increased by 21% to 7.8 million passengers.

The airline launched a regional subsidiary called EgyptAir Express with a fleet of new Embraer E-170s. The subsidiary connects Cairo to the domestic airports of Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada, Luxor, Aswan, Marsa Alam, Abu Simbel and Alexandria in addition to regional international services to complement the parent company's operations. In February 2008, during the Singapore Airshow, the airline converted six options for the Embraer E-170 to firm orders for 2009 delivery.

The EgyptAir Holding Company has recorded substantial profits in past years. With profits reaching US$170 million during the 2007/2008 financial year. This is also fortified by huge assets of more than US$3.8 billion. The airline's financial year is from July to June.

For the fiscal year ending 31st July 2007, EgyptAir achieved a record total revenue of US$1,143 billion. Total group revenue increased by 14%, as compared with the previous year.

On October 16, 2007 the Chief Executive Board of Star Alliance voted to accept EgyptAir as a future member. The airline had already forged commercial and cooperative agreements with several members of Star Alliance by then including Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Thai Airways International, Swiss International Airlines, South African Airways, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines and bmi. Nine months after being invited as a future member (a record time by any airline joining an alliance) EgyptAir became the 21st member of Star Alliance in a ceremony held in Cairo on 11th July 2008.

In 2008, the airline's operations at its hub airport, Cairo International Airport, will be overhauled as the new Terminal 3 is inaugurated in fall 2008. The airline will transfer all its operations (international and domestic) to the terminal which will more than double the airport's capacity. To implement the Star Alliance “Move Under One Roof” concept at Cairo Airport, all Star Alliance member carriers flying to Cairo will move to the new Terminal 3. The carrier is also a founding member of Arabesk Airline Alliance.

New Look and Livery

In June 2008, EgyptAir revealed a new look to its Horus logo with a new livery on its aircraft. The new logo is a modern vision of the golden god Horus, the King of the Sky and one of the most famous gods of ancient Egypt. The new colours reflect the 'Spirit of Egypt'. EgyptAir is written in Arabic on the engines.

File:New EgyptAir Logo 1.jpg

New EgyptAir colour scheme rendering on a Boeing B777-300ER

File:New EgyptAir Logo 2.jpg

New EgyptAir colour scheme rendering on a Boeing B777-300ER

In addition to the new livery, a number of EgyptAir aircraft are also painted in the Star Alliance colours.

As of December 2008, three aircraft wear the alliance livery:

• A330-200 (reg: SU-GCK)
• B737-800 (reg: SU-GCS)
• B777-200ER (reg: SU-GBR)

EgyptAir Holding Company

The EgyptAir Holding Company was created in 2002 with seven companies (two were added at later dates):

• EgyptAir Airlines
• EgyptAir Maintenance & Engineering (EASA Part 145 Certified)
• EgyptAir Ground Services
• EgyptAir Cargo
• EgyptAir Inflight Services
• EgyptAir Tourism & Duty Free Shops
• EgyptAir Medical Services
• EgyptAir Supplementary Industries Company (formed in 2006)
• EgyptAir Express (launched in June 2007)

Subsidiaries

The airline also has stakes in:

• Air Cairo (40%)
• Smart Aviation Company (20%)
• Air Sinai (100%)

Destinations

See full article: EgyptAir destinations (last update: December 2008)

New 2009 Destinations

In 2009 the airline will introduce new flights to:

• Dar es Salam (Julius Nyerere International Airport) in Tanzania. The service will be launched from Cairo on 2nd June 2009. EgyptAir originally suspended flights to Dar es Salam in 2002.
• Catania (Catania-Fontanarossa Airport) in Sicily. The service will be launched on April 2009. Flights will be operated by EgyptAir Express and will link Catania to Cairo, Sharm El Sheikh and Luxor.

Fleet

EgyptAir operates a fleet with an average age of 7.6 years. The fleet consists of the following aircraft as of January 2009

EgyptAir Fleet

Aircraft	Total	Orders	Options	Passengers	Notes
Airbus A320-200	13			145 (16/129) 144 (10/134) 171 (0/171)	5 in the 145 configuration 7 in the 144 configuration 1 in the 171 configuration (based in Aswan operating domestic flights).
Airbus A321-200	4			185 (10/175)
Airbus A330-200	7	11		268 (24/244)	Order Breakdown: 8 purchased from Airbus and 3 leased. Delivery: 2010-2013
Airbus A340-200	3			260 (12/24/224)
Boeing 737-500	4			104 (8/96)	Also operating for Air Sinai flights 1 aircraft to be phased out in early 2009
Boeing 737-800	5	7		160 (16/144) 145 (24/121)	4 in the 160 configuration 1 in the 145 configuration Delivery: 7 in 2009
Boeing 777-200ER	5			319 (12/21/286)
Boeing 777-300ER		8	2	340 (49/291)	Order Breakdown: six aircraft to be leased from GECAS and two purchased from Boeing with two options. Delivery: four (leased) in 2010, two (leased) in 2011, two (leased) in 2012, one (purchased) in 2013 and one (purchased) in 2014.

Furthermore the airline wet leases further aircraft to meet high passenger demand during various periods (e.g. Summer, Ramadan, Hajj). As of January the airline had no aircraft on lease.

In addition, Egyptair Cargo operates four A300-B4/600 aircraft & EgyptAir Express operates seven Embraer E-170 aircraft with another six on order. This brings EgyptAir's total to 52 + 31 orders + 2 options.

Codeshare agreements

EgyptAir has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

Aerosvit Airlines Austrian Airlines (SA) bmi (SA) Gulf Air Korean Air Lufthansa (SA) Olympic Airlines Royal Air Maroc Saudi Arabian Airlines Singapore Airlines (SA) South African Airways (SA) Swiss International Airlines (SA) TAP Portugal (SA) Thai Airways International (SA) Tunis Air Turkish Airlines (SA) United Airlines (SA) - to start from Summer 2009 Yemenia

Note: This list includes Star Alliance (SA) partners. EgyptAir joined Star Alliance on 11 July 2008.

Incidents and accidents

Fatal events include:

• On January 29, 1973 an EgyptAir Ilyushin Il-18 aircraft (Reg No SU-AOV) crashed into the Pentadaktylos mountain range on approach to Nicosia International Airport killing all 37 aboard (7 crew and 30 passengers).
• On 25 December 1976, EgyptAir Flight 864 crashed into an industrial complex in Bangkok, Thailand. Twenty of the 52 on board were killed, and 72 on the ground were killed.

• On 23 November 1985, EgyptAir Flight 648, a Boeing 737 aircraft was hijacked to Luqa, Malta by three men from Abu Nidal group. Omar Rezaq was among them. After several hours of negotiations, Egyptian troops stormed the aircraft and battled with the hijackers, who threw several hand grenades and shot five Israeli and American passengers in their heads. The aircraft was severely damaged by the explosions and fire. Two of the six crew members and 59 of the 90 passengers were killed.
• On 31 October 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767 flying between John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City and Cairo, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket. The relief first officer of the flight, Gameel Al-Batouti, was suspected by U.S. authorities of committing suicide and intentionally crashing the plane. Egyptian officials have strongly disputed that claim..
• On 7 May 2002, EgyptAir Flight 843 crash-landed in heavy rain, fog, and a sandstorm on its approach to Tunis, killing 15 of 64 occupants.

External links

• Official site