AIR TRANSPORT Air Cairo is betting big on a turnaround in fortunes for Egypt's long-suffering tourism industry. Martin Rivers talks to chairman and chief executive Yasser el Ramly, Why Air Cairo is rolling the dice... ews that ExyptAiriseaingbackisfeet renewal pgrammefrankiysurprisedno: Jone when wis confirmed by Sher Fay the country strarxpor mins n December Tathy had repeated warned that the lag carte faces roublingbeadinds ling rubian Aerospace aslengagoas November 2015 thathe was: valeting plansor dozens faicraiondes At the time, his main eancem was the bon ‘of Metrojet Flight 9268 shortly alter tako-of from Sharmeel Sheikh Aiport ~an attack that claimed 224 mostly Russian ves, and prompted several countries to ground routes othe Red Sea resort. Coming on the heelsofthe 201 popular revolution and the 2013 military coup, the error atrocity signalled anew low for Egypt steeling Hopes of aswift recovery in 2016 were dashed byatriumvirat of funher disasters and security scares In Mare, an unstable man with fake suicde-bomb het hijacked Egypt Flight 181; in May. 66 people died in the stllunexplained crash of EgyptAie Flight 804; and in September, another troubled passenger tied to storm the cockpit of Flight 462, which was operated by EgyptAir short-haul subsidiary, Air Cairo, ‘Evenas its parent knuckles down for adravn- ‘ut period of uncertainty, however, Air Cia is pressing on with ambitious plans ro nearly tiple insize- placingallbetson the stil reeling European market ‘Yasser el Ramly it chalimnan and chief cexceutve, admits thatthe strategy is high-risk ‘While several governments have softened their travel advisories for Egypt, Russia still bansall Fights tothe county an Britain sill advises ‘against ying into Sharm el Sheikh Aitport onothoess, Ramly blioves the tides slowly ‘umingfor Egyptian tourism, and hes positioning Air Cairo at the front of the uve to benefit fom gradual normalisation, “The demand, of course, was affected after the az ‘rash ofthe Rastan airraft. Te ist half the year [2016] was very tough from January to June,"he sid during an interview at the annual meting the Arab Ai Carers’ Organisation in ‘Casablance in November. “But, stil, we operate sargund 30 weekly fights to Europe with good loads, even 75% load factor.” gasaa Confirming thatthe line isstickingy plans to deploy 20 airrat by the end of thedecade up from seven atthe time of writing ~he repeated the oft versed claim in Egypt that tourism samp donotlast forever “The recent difficulties postponed our plan by ‘swoatireraf,"the chil exseutive continued, “We were supposed to be 10 aircraft by the boginning of 2017; instead i will bony eight. But think by thiscoming summer wewill have Wor I ster.” ‘AirCair launched operationsin 1997 asa charter specialist, before diversiving with Lov cost scheduled Mying when EgyptAir became its ‘majority shareholder in 2003, The ailing presently deploys Airbus A320s-all ut one of Wich are configured in an eeonomy-cnls yout Despite the brand name, Cairo plays only an incidental role in the business made, Just one of ‘Ai Cairo’ itcrft~ the unit with a business class cabin is based inthe capital, The other sixare spread orally between etieson the Mediterranean cous (Alexandria) the Red Sea (Sharmel Sheikh, Hurghada and Marsa Alam) and the Nile River (Asyut, Sohagand Laon "Our ight outof Caio are ess than Seb ofthe tol operation," Ramiy sai, “We concentrateon ‘the secondary airports. Even forthe Galf and Middle East we don fy from Caito alot. So, for us. the competition coming from thelow fare carriers the Gulfand Egypt Air Cairo’ strategie shit towardslow:cost scheduled operations came at atime when Egypt was tryingto capitalise on the growing popeity of sef-hooked travel eround the world ~ particularly in Europe For years, management split ther atfention between legacy charter partnersand independent travellers. But, with {our operatorsnow fleeing the country en masse, Rar ily soems ready to tun shack on Package holidays ightyfive pe cheduled lights, Itcould move 1090% this coming summer,“ he confirmed "We want to ntreducea new strategy inthe Egypian marke, tomake our scheduled lightsavailable tomany customers, not only forthe tour operators and the people whohave ps th gramme with te hotel, We would like forall remarkets we serve to beal-yearround, so that ‘eustomers can alas ind am aeroplaneto spend ‘nice holiday in Egypt Although charter contract will continue to be wed forthe foreseeable future, their main purpose willbe toadd capacityon preexisting routes during the high season With Air Cairo, thus, becoming a rational scheduled operator, management ar opening up todistibution channels that were previously «considered superfluous. Last June, they ‘completed the transition to Amadeus” Aga reservation and in that paves the way fr futur interline ad codeshare agreements with other cavers, ‘We want tosel tickets] onany dsibution system tomarket curslvesfor regular Mights 19 Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada and oter tourist srporss” Ram affirmed. “One the reasons that ‘wemevedto the Amadeus systmis because we would to have cooperation with some ofthe Privat sins Exypand the Middle East andi uropeaswel, Wehave aay signed aninttine agreement with FgyptAirand we are ready totale thisstep withaitfinesin European the business clase alt potentially Fleet -but declined wo repeat out moving froma low-cost 0 Actually, weare The chief executive added th may beofered on so upto 25% oft carkierclaims full-service business mel low-fare,”hesaid, opting forthe am hybrid term thats favoured bylboth categories of AirCairoaleady provides fe checked luggage alowanceand fev on-board meelstoal customers agua AAs of December 2016, te sirline's scheduled network comprises 11 destinations in Europe (Belgrade, Billand, Bratislava, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dusseldor, Hannover, Mich, Oso, Prague and Stuttgart); eight in the Middle East (Amman, Doha, Hof, Jeddah, Kei (assim, Riyadh and Yanbu) and Tbilisi the Caucasis. Charter lightsare, meanwhile ‘operated to Armenia, Austria, Germany, Poland and Russi. Newscheduled routes to Wa ce were being lined upasthisatile went ‘while Liza! Vienna ae also inthe for early 2017. Asked about other prospective markets, Ramly said that Buchares EGYPT “We would like for all RUC ha to be all-year-round, so RUC 1) always find an aeroplane to spend a ESRC na PSs Dui, Kazakhstan and one additional poi in ‘Germany are under evaluation along witha resumption of ght to Baku, The expansion wl coincide with the introduction of anew aircraft livery. though ‘management have decided not to adopt bran name more refletive ofthe network ‘Weestudied [whether we shoul] ch airline’ limited presence in Cairo. teurrenty ‘Serves just thre scheduled routes from the capital Hol, Jeddalsand Yanbu. “But we found that we built it up over the years, so we wil koep it. Even though is AirCairo, Cairo is Eeyp ‘With Russian President Viaimir Putin isto Egyptin the near than ayearof diplomatic arty Ramis not ‘company name," Ramiy pledging to restore ff future - ending mo pressure oversieport alone in predictingan imminent tourism recover. Collies Intemational, acommercia real estate firm, says that hotel revenues are ross Egypt, buayed by the return (of German charter operators last autumn, However, having dropped fr 20104095 milion 2015, vstor numbers climb before the eis isovet 147 milion in haves long way 152017 becomes Caio’ gamble will hve been costly mistake 43