Egyptair

Egyptair (Egyptian Arabic: مصر للطيران, romanized: Maṣr le-ṭ-Ṭayarān) is the state-owned flag carrier[9] of Egypt.

The airline is headquartered at Cairo International Airport, its main hub, operating scheduled passenger and freight services to 81 destinations in Africa, Europe, Asia, and The Americas.

[11] Alan Muntz, chairman of Airwork, visited Egypt in 1931; at that time, he expressed his intention of starting up a new airline in the country.

Operations started in July 1933, initially linking Cairo with Alexandria and Mersa Matruh using de Havilland DH.84 Dragon equipment.

[12] The carrier operated all-British aircraft in the early years,[18]: 588  and by April 1939 the fleet comprised one D.H. Dragon, one D.H. Dragonfly, five D.H. Rapìdes, two D.H.86s and one D.H.86B that worked on the Alexandria–Cairo, Alexandria–Port Said–Cairo–Minia–Assiut, Cairo–Assiut–Luxor–Assuan, Cairo–Lydda–Haifa–Baghdad and Cairo–Port Said–Lydda–Haifa routes.

[22] On 1 December 1952 Misrair took over the domestic competitor Services Aériens Internationaux d'Égypte (SAIDE) and thus ended the flight operations of this airline.

[22] Eight months later on 1 November 1956, one Viscount (SU-AIC) was written off while parked at Almaza Airport due to an air-raid by the RAF during the Suez crisis[27][28][a] The number of passengers transported during 1955 had grown to 77050.

[18]: 588  By October 1960, Misrair had Comets deployed on the Cairo–Belgrade–Prague, Cairo–Rome–London, Cairo–Jeddah and Cairo–Khartoum runs,[18]: 588  DC-3s on the Cairo–Alexandria–Mersa Matruh, Cairo–Assiut–Luxor, Cairo–Luxor–Aswan and Cairo–Port Said–Alexandria services, and Viscounts were used for the non-stop flights that linked Cairo and Alexandria.

Also that year, three ex-Pan Am DC-6Bs were purchased, and another three were acquired from Northwest Orient; these aircraft were put on service on domestic routes and began replacing the Viscounts.

[37] By March 1965, seven Comet 4Cs and four Viscounts flew on routes across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, along with a service to Lagos and Accra.

That March, the carrier started services to East Berlin with Il-18 equipment and in June the route to Tokyo via Kuwait, Bombay, Bangkok and Hong Kong was resumed.

On 19 February SU-ALE, another Comet, aborted takeoff from Munich Riem Airport at 30 feet (9.1 m), fell back to the runway, slid until the end of it and hit a fence.

[42] On 2 January 1971, a Comet (SU-ALC) hit sand dunes on approach to Tripoli,[42] with the loss of lives of the eight passengers on board and the crew of eight.

On 19 March 1972, EgyptAir Flight 763, a Douglas DC-9-32 carrying Yugoslav registration YU-AHR crashed into the Shamsan Mountains, 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Aden, killing all 30 occupants.

[47] Under the terms of the contract, light maintenance was to be performed in Egypt, whereas airframe and engine overhauling was to be undertaken in the Soviet Union.

[49] An Ilyushin Il-18, registration SU-AOY, was involved in a deadly accident near Nicosia on 29 January 1973 when it crashed into mountainous terrain, killing all 37 occupants.

[48] The outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 had forced the carrier to suspend the Tokyo service; it was resumed on 15 March 1974 via Bombay, Bangkok and Manila.

[46] One of the brand new Tu-154 aircraft, SU-AXB, crashed [ru] on 10 July 1974 after takeoff from Cairo International Airport during a training flight, killing a crew of six on board.

[55] Following allegations from the Egyptian parliament that airline officials had been bribed by Boeing to favour the 1975 order, the chairman Gamal Erfan resigned in February.

[55][56][57][58] On 22 April, a Boeing 737 flying from Cairo to Luxor was hijacked by three Palestinians; an Egyptian commando team regained control of the aircraft with no damages to its structure.

[55] A serious accident involving a Boeing 707 took place on 25 Dec when a non-regular flight from Cairo to Tokyo crashed into a textile mill while on approach to Bangkok, killing all 43 passengers and a crew of nine; fatalities and injured people on the ground were also reported.

On 21 February 1978, a Boeing 707 made an emergency landing at Sharjah Airport after hitting a flock of birds; the incident caused substantial damage to the fuselage and the engines.

[68] The airline underwent a major corporate re-engineering in 2002 when its structure was changed from a governmental organization into a holding company with subsidiaries.

[69] The move coincided with the establishment of the Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation and the government's ambitious strategy to modernize and upgrade its airports and airline.

[72] The carrier links Cairo with Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, Luxor, Aswan, Marsa Alam, Abu Simbel and Alexandria (Egypt) in addition to secondary destinations to complement the parent company's network.

The airline's CEO also stated the company was evaluating whether to set up a low-cost carrier subsidiary for its Alexandria operations to address the growth of LCCs in the city.

The new joint venture – named Civil Aviation Finance and Operating Leases (CIAF-Leasing) will initially focus on narrowbody aircraft.

[75] In November 2015, two weeks after the crash that brought down Metrojet Flight 9268 in the Sinai peninsula, Russian authorities banned Egyptair from flying to Russia, citing security concerns.

Figures for the year ending 30 June 2011, and the lack of detailed accounts since then, reflect the disruption that occurred because of the Egyptian Revolution in early 2011.

[102][103] In a ceremony held at Cairo International Airport on 11 July 2008, the carrier became the 21st member of this alliance, nine months after it started the joining process.

A United Arab Airlines Comet 4C departs Geneva Airport in 1968.
A United Arab Airlines Ilyushin Il-62 at Le Bourget Airport in 1971
An Egyptair Boeing 707-320C at Zurich Airport in 1978
An Egyptair Boeing 737-200 Advanced on short final to Zurich Airport in 1979
An Egyptair Boeing 737-800 in old livery at Frankfurt Airport in 2013
An Egyptair Boeing 737-800 in Star Alliance special livery
An Egyptair Airbus A320neo
An Egyptair Airbus A321neo
An Egyptair Airbus A330-200
An Egyptair Airbus A330-300
An Egyptair Boeing 737-800
An Egyptair Boeing 777-300ER
An Egyptair Boeing 787-9
An Egyptair Boeing 767-300ER taxiing at Frankfurt Airport in 1999