Air Arabia to launch Sohag flight late-Dec 2010

Air Arabia starting 26DEC10 begins 2 weekly Sharjah – Sohag service in Egypt with Airbus A320 aircraft.
Schedule below:

G9677 SHJ0730 – 0930HMB 320 13
G9678 HMB1010 – 1515SHJ 320 13

Source

Egypt's airlines flying far

By Oxford Business Group July 27, 2010, 4:26 pm

CAIRO: The year 2010 is shaping up to be a banner one for Egypt’s air transport sector. Thanks to a worldwide industry rebound, steady passenger growth throughout the Arab world, continuing development of the country’s airport infrastructure and the recent entry of a host of low-cost carriers (LCCs) into the market, the months ahead look bright. Earlier this month, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revised its global forecast for the year. Whereas just three months ago it projected a $2.8 billion loss for the worldwide airline industry, it now projects a $2.5 billion profit. It expects Middle Eastern carriers to net $100 million, their first profit since 2005, which is a marked improvement over the $600 million they lost last year. According to Brian Pearce, the IATA’s chief economist, Egypt is particularly well positioned to benefit from this turnaround. As he pointed out to Arabian Aerospace, the country’s overall economic growth “has been relatively robust. The Egyptian economy slowed down to a 4.7 percent [growth rate] last year, which is lower than we’ve seen before, but there was growth during a global recession.” That growth has been reflected in the airline sector, where Egypt has proved to be something of an exception. Whereas most of the region’s national carriers fared poorly in 2009 — a year that many insiders have called the worst in the sector’s history — Egypt saw a 4 percent increase in scheduled departures. With the H1N1 pandemic behind them and with Egypt’s airport infrastructure continuing to develop, Pearce projects further growth in the months ahead. On the basis of its actions, national carrier EgyptAir seems to agree with this assessment. It has recently taken delivery of its second Boeing 777-300 aircraft, and it intends to take delivery of two more 777s, as well as two A330s, later this year. It is also expanding its routes, adding non-stop service to Dubai in June and to Copenhagen in October. Moreover, it recently announced a new code-sharing agreement with Turkish Airlines, which is itself expanding in the Egyptian market by adding service to Alexandria. More important than EgyptAir’s growth, particularly in the medium to long term, is the recent entry of LCCs into the Egyptian market. First was Al Misria Universal Airlines, which began service in late 2009. Hassan Aziz, the company’s president and CEO, said that he wanted to take advantage of low prices during the global financial downturn to found a company that could tap growing demand in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country. Al Misria took possession of its first A320 in April 2009 and hopes to expand the fleet to 10 planes in five years. Other investors agree with Aziz’s assessment. Two other new carriers, Nile Air and Nesma Airlines, plan to begin operations in the near future. Foreign LCCs have also begun to move into the Egyptian market. Flydubai has begun offering service to Alexandria, Luxor and Assiut, and Gulf Air has announced that it will begin serving Alexandria later this month. But the biggest news is Air Arabia’s decision to add a third hub in Egypt. UAE carrier Air Arabia, the Arab world’s largest listed airline, formed a joint venture with Travco, the Egypt-based travel and hospitality group which is the biggest in the Middle East, in late 2009. “Linking up with [an] established travel company like Travco rather than another airline made sense given the size of the international tourist market” in Egypt, said Air Arabian’s CEO, Adel Ali. The plan is for Air Arabia to handle operations while Travco provides access to its network of tour operators, helps with marketing and assists with government relations. The new carrier, which started operating this month with two A320s based out of Alexandria, plans to serve Europe, the Middle East and Africa and hopes to expand quickly. It expects to have four to six planes by the end of the year, and is already in discussions about adding another hub in Egypt by the Red Sea. “Low-cost air travel represents 25 percent of the market in Europe, [and] a miniscule 7 percent in the Middle East,” Ali said. Furthermore, incomes are lower in the Middle East, making such travel particularly attractive. Given this market structure, Ali anticipates steady expansion of the LCC sector. There will obviously be struggle over market share between the LCCs and incumbents, but, Pearce said, “because Egypt has a fast-growing economy I think there’s a scope to stimulate the market overall. It certainly means there’s more pressure for innovation and cost-cutting.” While additional hurdles remain, including a dispute with Saudi Arabia over sharing airspace and the need to formulate a true “open skies” policy, much progress has been made so far and Egypt is well on its way to realizing its ambition of turning Cairo into a major air hub. –This article was published by Oxford Business Group on July 26, 2010. Source

More news...

• EgyptAir have now published details of their new flights to Lusaka (Zambia) which launches 02NOV10. The flight will operate twice a week via Dar es Salam. The schedule for both DAR and LUN will be

• 
  
  CAI DAR MS841 22:10 05:00 -2-4-57 5:50 A320 0
  DAR LUN MS841 06:00 07:30 --3---7 2:30 A320 0
  LUN DAR MS842 08:30 11:55 --3---7 2:25 A320 0
  DAR CAI MS842 12:55 17:40 --3---7 5:45 A320 0
  DAR CAI MS842 12:55 17:40 1---5-- 5:45 A320 0
  
  

• Air Arabia Egypt have now confirmed Abu Dhabi will be their next destination from HBE. Flights will start on 12JUL10.

• Turkish airline, Onur Air, plans to start a new airline in Egypt. The airline is operate charter flights from the Red Sea to various European cities. The yet to be named airline is expected to start operations in December 2010 with 2 aircraft if they are receive the necessary approval from the Egyptian authorities.

Air Arabia Egypt launch Amman and Beirut route

Air Arabia Egypt on 18JUN10 has launched 4 weekly Alexandria Borg el Arab – Amman service. In addition, the airline’s 4th route, Beirut, will begin from 01JUL10. Schedule as follows:

Alexandria Borg el Arab – Amman
E5215 HBE1250 – 1420AMM 320 x246
E5216 AMM1500 – 1635HBE 320 x246

Alexandria Borg el Arab – Beirut
E5325 HBE1640 – 1800BEY 320 x135
E5326 BEY1840 – 2000HBE 320 x135

Source

EgyptAir named at 2011 IATA world meeting hosts

Posted on 9 June 2010 in Events

EgyptAir will be the focus of air transport industry attention over the next year, with the 2011 IATA annual general meeting now confirmed to be hosted in Cairo. This follows the Star Alliance carrier hosting the Arab Air Carriers Organization's (AACO) yearly gathering in October.

“All air carriers compete to get such an opportunity,” EgyptAir holding company chairman Hussein Massoud told Arabian Aerospace, as the IATA AGM ended in Berlin yesterday.

Massoud said the events will highlight the Egyptian capital as a place for decision-makers to discuss strategy.

With the air transport industry facing many problems, he says, carrier representatives are drawn to high-level conferences. The popularity of the Berlin event is evidence of this, he added: “This gives an indication that, as long as there is a hot issue, people are interested in such meetings.”

EgyptAir is continuing to take delivery of new aircraft, with its first Airbus A330-300 due to arrive in August, several months earlier than originally planned, while four Boeing 737-800s and two more 777-300s will come later this year. Massoud says the carrier is in the next stage of its fleet-planning process, with the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 likely to be considered.

Meanwhile Air Arabia’s establishment of a base in Alexandria this month shows that national carrier is not immune to budget carrier competition.

But it has also highlighted an arrangement which prohibits private airlines such as Saudi Arabia’s Sama and NAS Air from operating to Cairo, even though technically the two countries have an ‘open skies’ pact. Massoud says: “You must continue the sentence: it’s open skies, but not when the parties will be hurt.”

This situation has led to a dispute, which started on 5 April when Saudi authorities banned EgyptAir from the Medina route, prompting a similar restriction against Saudi Arabian Airlines on the same route.

Source

Air Arabia launches first flight out of Egypt

By Christopher Le Coq/Daily News Egypt June 1, 2010, 4:45 pm

CAIRO: Air Arabia, a regional low cost carrier, launched its Egypt operations Tuesday, with its first flight taking off from Alexandria, its third hub, to Khartoum.

The UAE-based carrier will also launch flights to Kuwait, Amman and Beirut, as well as to other destinations further afar within Europe, Africa and elsewhere in the Middle East.

In late 2009, Air Arabia formed a joint venture firm with Egypt's travel and hospitality group Travco with a start-up capital of $50 million. Travco Group has a 40 percent stake in the new firm while Air Arabia has 40 percent stake.

Adel Ali, Group CEO of Air Arabia, said that the new carrier will compliment their existing operations in the United Arab Emirates and Morocco, where it set up its first two hubs.

Hamed El Chiaty, chairman and CEO of Travco Group, said in a written statement, that the partnership “will contribute to the diversification of the domestic tourism industry, which is so vital to the Egyptian economy.”

Ali said: “Egypt has the biggest population in the Middle East, it is a major destination for tourists, geographically it is close to Europe and Africa, which will bring the Middle East and these two regions closer together, and finally, this decision fits within in our business model.”

Egypt, he said, will be a hub in the low-cost carriers’ global strategy.

“At the moment, we have a staff of 100 people and just two planes, with an objective of having four to six planes by the end of the year,” he pointed out.

Asked to what degree this will help create local jobs for Egyptians, Ali was quick to point to the company’s operations in the UAE. “When we started out in the UAE seven years ago, we had 1,000 employees. The number has grown to 7,000.”

“Each plane directly creates 70-80 jobs, but then there are jobs that are indirectly linked to our industry, such as taxis, restaurants, hotels and the like, bringing the actual number closer to 300-400 jobs per plane,” he told Daily News Egypt.

Ali underlined the potential for the development and expansion of low-cost travel in Egypt and in the rest of the region.

“Low-cost air travel represents 25 percent of the market in Europe, while a miniscule 7 percent in the Middle East.

“There is more significant demand for this type of travel for two fundamental reasons: first, on average middle-income revenues are lower in the Middle East than in Europe, making this type of travel highly attractive, and second, there is often no other viable travel option,” he said.

On how the airline’s business will develop in Egypt, Ali said their “strategy is to let it grow organically; part of the company’s success and ability to grow will be on traffic rights.”

He was also quick to point out that the government agencies involved in opening up Egypt’s airspace to foreign competition had been highly cooperative.

The entry into the Egyptian market builds on its existing services, which spans 60 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Source

Air Arabia Egypt route update

The newest Egyptian airline, Air Arabia Egypt, received its AOC today and will launch HBE-KRT from 01JUN and HBE-KWI from 02JUN.

HBE KWI E5551 23:15 02:00 1-3-5-7 A320 0
KWI HBE E5552 02:40 05:45 12-4-6- A320 0

HBE KRT E5617 09:35 12:15 -2---6- A320 0
KRT HBE E5618 12:55 15:40 -2---6- A320 0

Source: Horus

Air Arabia Primed for Alex Landing

Carrier is poised to open Egypt’s first budget hub, a move that could change the air travel landscape

The biggest budget carrier in the Middle East, Air Arabia, may open a new hub in Alexandria as early as next month, a move experts say could eventually drive down prices across the country, and revitalize the airline business in Egypt’s second largest city.

The Sharjah-based carrier will team with local tourism group Travco, and though the companies have not released a list of destinations or number of flights, their investment has been pegged at LE 150 million.

While analysts could not say whether the new hub will challenge Egyptair’s regional dominance, they believe Egyptians who normally fly out of Cairo would be willing to head north in search of cheaper flights. Should the venture prove as successful as Air Arabia’s Morocco and Sharjah bases, the airline plans to open further hubs in other Egyptian cities.

By reducing the cost of air travel, and forcing traditional airlines to become more competitive, budget carriers have the potential to transform the Egyptian airline industry as the advent of counterparts like Ryanair and easyJet have in other regions.

“Egypt enjoys a strategic location for airline business, especially for Air Arabia with its existing hubs in the UAE and Morocco,” said Adel Ali, Air Arabia Group CEO, in an email interview. “Egypt has a number of international airports and we aim to operate from as many as we can. We will initially start with Alexandria, being Egypt’s second largest city, and expand into more airports based on business sense and operational feasibility.”

The venture, 60% owned by Travco, will give people flying from Al-Nohza International Airport in Alexandria more choice in destinations and flight times, according to Travco chairman Hamed El-Chiaty.

It also means fewer Alexandrians will have to make their way 300 km south to the capital to catch a flight. The move will put Alexandria on the map as a travel destination for European and Arab travelers who now fly into Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada to benefit from budget air fares.

The airline is set to announce the expanded number of routes and flights soon. Its goal is to follow in the footsteps of its Moroccan hub launched last May. By offering flights to 11 destinations in Europe and North Africa, that hub helped the airline attract 11 million passengers in 2009.

Neither Travco nor Air Arabia would comment on whether there had been talks with the Ministry of Civil Aviation about flying out of Cairo, state-run Egyptair’s hub, but they added that the airline may fly out of the capital in the future.

Air Arabia, also the Middle East’s first budget airline, began operations in October 2003. In just six years, the airline has become a force, flying to more than 60 destinations out of the Sharjah and Casablanca. The company plans to begin with two Airbus A320 aircraft in Alexandria and to increase the fleet as needed.

While Air Arabia has managed to post positive annual growth, few national carriers could boast the same in light of the global economic downturn during what industry insiders are calling the worst year for air travel in the sector’s history. Egypt, though, was one of the few exceptions. The number of scheduled passenger departures for 2009 was 9.6 million, up 4% from 2008. The country has seen substantial growth in terms of air traffic recently, says the International Air Transport Association’s chief economist, Brian Pearce, despite the economic crisis.

“Growth has been relatively robust. The Egyptian economy slowed down to a 4.7% (growth rate) last year, which is lower than we’ve seen before, but there is growth during a global recession.

“I think we’ve also seen growth in capacity in air transport infrastructure and services,” he says, alluding to Egyptair’s membership in the Star Alliance network of air carriers in 2008 and recent investment in airport renovations throughout the country.

Pearce predicts the airline industry will continue to grow as new carriers, such as Air Arabia, open the market to passengers unable to afford regular fares. They will also push other airlines to offer better, more cost-effective services, similar to Europe in the 1990s when budget airlines first came on the scene.

Though they usually offer fewer routes, flights, airport choices and creature comforts, no-frills carriers have flourished around the world by providing flights that can be up to 50% cheaper than national carriers. A return flight to Sharjah from Alexandria on Air Arabia costs LE 1,472, while Egyptair’s economy class flight on a recent day from Cairo was LE 2,160.

“In many ways [Egypt] is still a country where people don’t fly anywhere near as much [as in] Europe. There’s a lot of opportunity for people who haven’t flown to fly more. Lower fares give them access,” says Pearce.

“Obviously, when you get a new entrant there’s also the element of taking market share from the incumbents and there will be some of that, but because Egypt has a fast growing economy I think there’s a scope to stimulate the market overall. It certainly means there’s more pressure for innovation and cost cutting.”

Pearce foresees more new entrants here as airlines find new ways of exploiting the region’s vast population and tourism potential.

Dr. Adla Ragab, an economics professor at Cairo University and expert on air travel in the region, says Air Arabia’s hub will likely increase the number of Egyptian air passengers and could increase travel in the region. Last year, 18% of people who flew to Egypt were from the Arab world. But she points out that airline’s claim that it will boost tourism depends on which European and Middle Eastern cities Air Arabia will connect to.

“The number of passengers will increase and it will be very good for the airport, but the growth will not be as much as we are expecting [for other airlines],” she says.

Cairo International Airport’s chief commercial officer Jean-Pierre Tabet does not think traffic at his airport will be affected greatly because its passenger base, business travelers, is not a low-cost carrier’s target clientele. There is also the question of whether savings will be substantial enough to entice passengers living in Greater Cairo to add an extra three-hour train trip to their journey.

“There may be some minor shift in passenger traffic that lower prices attract, but we are generally geared toward business travelers,” he says, most of whom are looking for convenience and greater choice in flights, classes and destinations rather than the cheapest fares.

He says he does not know if Air Arabia or Travco approached the Ministry of Civil Aviation to put the hub at Cairo Airport, adding that capacity at the airport is tight due to the closure of Terminal 2 for upcoming refurbishment. Already airlines are moving out into temporary stations in Terminal 1. In addition, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has set up agreements with national airlines that might make it difficult for certain regional carriers to set up shop in the capital.

Air Arabia is counting on a growing population of travelers reliant on cheap fares to make their new hub profitable, as well as the ever growing numbers of air travelers in the region.

“I think growth in the Middle East and North Africa is likely as liberalization continues and economic growth continues to boost salaries. I think you will see new [airlines and joint ventures] coming in and providing more services. What we’ve seen is if the market is stimulated there tends to be more business for carriers of all different business models,” says Pearce. bt

Source: Business Today

Air Arabia Egypt will launch in mid-April 2010

UAE-based low-cost carrier Air Arabia aims to launch operations at its third hub in Egypt by mid-April and hopes to maintain its seat factor in the 80 percent range, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

The airline is facing growing competition from local rivals including Kuwait's Jazeera Airways and Dubai-owned flydubai, as well as from fully fledged carriers such as Emirates, struggling to cope with a sharp drop in international passenger travel.

Air Arabia already operates in Morocco, flying from its Casablanca hub earlier this year, and said in August it planned to set up a new hub between its base at Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and North Africa to diversify its revenues and boost its catchment area.

"We are hoping to start the operation by the middle of April 2010," Group chief executive Adel Ali told an analyst call.

The operation, based near Alexandria, will start with two planes and intends to fly to Europe, Africa and the Middle East and could increase the number of planes to six by year-end.

Fourth-quarter net profit for the airline fell 15.2 percent, but beat most analysts' forecast.

Air Arabia carried 4.1 million passengers in 2009, up 14.2 percent from 3.6 million passengers last year, while the airline's seat load factor stood at 80 percent. Turnover in 2009 fell 4.5 percent to 2 billion dirhams, the firm said.

The airline is projecting a first quarter seat load factor of 80 percent, Ali said.

"I see no reason why we shoudn't," Ali said. "We had that in January."

Seat factor shows how successfully an airline fills its planes.

Ali said in October he did not see yields improving until the beginning of the first quarter of 2010.

The carrier hedged 35 percent of its fuel at about $60 and is in talks with banks and export credit agencies to finance aircraft orders. It has an order of 44 A320s from Airbus.

Air Arabia shares, up 3.26 percent this year, closed 1 percent lower on Wednesday.

Air Arabia, Travco to launch budget airline in Egypt

CAIRO: Air Arabia, a low-cost carrier based in the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt’s Travco Group entered into a joint venture to launch a new budget airline.

The Egyptian carrier will be Air Arabia’s third hub — after the UAE and Morocco — serving Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the airline said in a statement.

Operations of the low-cost carrier will be managed by the Air Arabia Group.

The Arab world's largest listed airline by market value already flies to 57 destinations.

Air Arabia, said in August it planned to set up a new hub between its base at Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and North Africa to diversify its revenues and boost its catchment area, Reuters reported.

Egyptian tourist company Travco recently acquired Germany's Steigenberger Hotels as part of efforts to expand its international operations.

The company operates 146 hotels, resorts and cruises in Europe, Egypt and the Middle East, including the management of 81 Steigenberger and InterCity hotels.

Generating over €1 billion in revenues, Travco has two real estate developments on Egypt’s North Coast and the Red Sea.

Air Arabia, which first launched in 2003, operates a fleet of 20 Airbus A320 aircraft and recently ordered 44 more.

The airline is facing growing competition from local rivals including Kuwait's Jazeera Airways and Dubai-owned flydubai, as well as from fully-fledged carriers such as Emirates, struggling to cope with a sharp drop in international passenger travel, Reuters reported. –Daily News Egypt

Source: http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/art...rticleID=24428