Egyptair
EgyptAir is the national airline of Egypt, is based in Cairo and is wholly owned by the Egyptian government. It operates scheduled services to over 50 destinations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, Australia and the USA, as well as domestic services. Its main base is Cairo International Airport (CAI).
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History
The airline was established on 7 June 1932 and started operations in July 1933. It was founded in association with the Airwork Company under the name of Misr Airwork. During the Second World War the Egyptian government took charge of the airline and its name was changed to Misr Air in 1949. In January 1961 Misr Air joined Syrian Airways to form United Arab Airlines (UAA) as a result of new political links between Egypt and Syria, but this accord was shortlived. It retained the name for a time until it changed to EgyptAir in October 1971.
EgyptAir was the first airline in the Middle East to operate jet liners. It employs about 22,000 people and claimed total worldwide revenues in fiscal 2000 of US $1,000 M, with profits of US $35 M. The airline was restructured in 2002 to improve efficiency. A new take-off?
EgyptAir wholly owns Air Sinai and has a stake in Shorouk Air (51%) and Air Cairo (40%).
Incidents and Accidents
Notable fatal events include:
- 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 the head. The aircraft was severely damaged by the explosions and fire. Two of the six crew members and 58 of the 91 passengers were killed.
- 31 October 1999, the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990. It was a Boeing 767 that was flying between John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City and Cairo which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off of Nantucket. The pilot, Gameel Al-Batouti, was suspected by U.S. authorities of committing suicide and intentionally crashing the plane. Egyptian officials have strongly disputed that claim.
Services
EgyptAir operates the following services (at January 2005):
- Domestic scheduled destinations: Abu Simbel, Alexandria, Assiut, Aswan, Cairo, Hurghada, Luxor and Sharm el Sheikh.
- International scheduled destinations: Abidjan, Abu Dhabi, Accra, Addis Ababa, Al Ain, Aleppo, Algiers, Amman, Amsterdam, Asmara, Athens, Bahrain, Bangkok, Barcelona, Beirut, Benghazi, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Casablanca, Copenhagen, Damascus, Dammam, Doha, Dubai, Dusseldorf, Entebbe/Kampala, Frankfurt, Geneva, Istanbul, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Kano, Kuwait, Lagos, Larnaca, London, Madrid, Milan, Montreal Moscow, Mumbai, Munich, Muscat, Nairobi, New York, Osaka, Paphos, Paris, Riyadh, Rome, Sanaa, Sharjah, Tokyo, Tripoli, Tunis and Vienna.
- Codesharing destinations:
- Seoul with Korean Air
- Sydney and Singapore via Dubai with Singapore Airlines
Fleet
The EgyptAir fleet consists of the following aircraft (at June 2005):
- 7 Airbus A300B4
- 12 Airbus A320-200
- 3 Airbus A321-200
- 2 Airbus A330-200 (further 5 on order)
- 3 Airbus A340-200
- 4 Boeing 737-500
- 2 Boeing 747-300
- 5 Boeing 777-200
External Links
