Egypt Air plans expansion to Abuja airport after 40 years in Nigeria
After 40 years of operating in Nigeria,
first in Kano, then Lagos and Abuja, 83
year old Egypt Air, is planning to expand
its cargo and tourism services to Nigeria,
starting from the Nnamdi Azikiwe
International Airport in Abuja.
New manager of the airline, Tarek
Medany disclosed this in an interview
with journalists in Abuja at the weekend.
He stated that the airline will also
introduce bigger white body aircraft for
its flights in and out of Nigeria if it is
able to maintain an increased traffic on
its routes in the next five months.
While assuring that Egypt’s airspace is
safe, and that his country has
experienced stable security situation in
the past four years, Medany said efforts
are also being made to get travel
agencies in Cairo to obtain a security
certificate that will enable the embassy
in Abuja to issue visas more easily to
Nigerians.
“In Egypt, we have never recorded a
disaster; only one 15 years ago. Egypt
airspace is safe. We must wait to know
the final point of investigation’, he
stated while commenting on the recent
crash of the Russian airline in the Sinai
region.
“We are considering a change in our
aircraft to white body but we need to
increase the number of customers we are
carrying. If we are able to sustain the
traffic for five or six months, and the
market is good, we will change the
aircraft”, he added.
In an earlier interactive session
monitored by the embassy of Egypt
through its Press and Information
Officer, Ahmed Maher, the Egypt Air
boss noted that the airline now has a
variety of products and flights to
destinations in Europe, Middle East,
Asia, and North America, which
Nigerians should take advantage of at
about the lowest rates.
He noted that the airline, as part of its
expansion programme, is planning to
extend its cargo and tourism
organisations to Abuja airport as a way
of creating better relationship with the
most populous country in Africa.
Egypt Air was established in 1932 as the
seventh career globally. The airline
started operation in Nigeria in the 1970s
in Kano. It moved to Lagos 15 years later
but made its entrant into Abuja in 2008.
It operates eight subsidiaries, some of
which are its Cargo services,
maintenance and engineering services,
tourism services and medical services.
Two of these subsidiary organisations
are being planned to take off at Abuja
airport, they are the Cargo services and
tourism services companies.
Egypt Air is a member of the Star
Alliance network, and has the Gulf
region, Europe and the far East as its
prime destinations. It has four flying
points in West Africa, three of which are
in Nigeria. They are Lagos, Kano and
Abuja. The remaining flying point is the
Accra airport in Ghana.
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