Egypt to halt airline subsidies in autumn

Egypt to halt airline subsidies in autumn

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Egyptian Government subsidies paid to airlines flying to Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada airports are set to end on October 31, it was revealed this week.

Newly appointed minister of tourism Khaled Ramy said the decision to end the payments had been made as a result of growing tourist numbers to Red Sea destinations.

But he said they would remain in place for the country’s airports that serve its more cultural destinations, in a bid to help them boost visitors.

Ramy said: “I won’t change anything until October 31 this year - it was a promise made by my predecessor that we would continue subsidies or incentives on flights from all destinations into our destinations.

“The subsidies to Luxor, Aswan, Marsa Alam and Taba airports will remain. The subsidies to Sharm and Hurghada - they have to stop because these two destinations are doing very well and in the winter I think they will do much better.”

Ramy added that the government could even increase subsidies to its cultural destinations.

“What we’re hoping to do is get more people into the Nile valley - we will keep the subsidies and most likely it will be a little bit more.”

Ramy said he was also hoping to remove the third-party operator’s fee, which is levied when an airline does not fly direct to the country but via an additional airport.

He believes the fee - around $4,000 for a Boeing 787 aircraft - is proving prohibitive for airlines such as Ryanair, adding: “What we really need is open skies all over Egypt.”

He said the UK trade could also expect further help from the country as it seeks to attract 20 million tourists by 2020.

“We’re looking to do something with agent training, fam trips and educationals,” Ramy added.

“If they connected it to the Nile Valley, I would then hope to pay for whatever they want.”

He insisted that Egypt remained a safe destination for tourists, following political violence and a revolution dating back to 2010, when 1.46 million Brits visited the country, as opposed to the 905,713 UK visitors Egypt received last year.

Ramy said concerns about security related to perception and wider issues in the Middle East and north Africa, rather than internal issues.

“Egypt is in the middle of everything. We know we are very far away from many of those incidents [happening in the Middle East and north Africa],” he added.