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.