EgyptAir to resume flights to Qatar from January 18
Daily Cairo flights and four a week from Alexandria planned
EgyptAir will resume flights to Qatar on January 18, the national carrier’s chief said as Egypt reopened its airspace to Qatari flights, signalling an end to a dispute of more than three years.
In addition to daily flights from Cairo, four flights a week would be operated from Alexandria to Doha, Rushdy Zakaria said late on Tuesday.
“In the beginning, there will be a daily flight. Then, the number of flights will gradually increase as demand rises,” he said. “The schedule of flights will be announced once operational permits are completed by aviation authorities in both countries,” Zakaria added.
Qatar Airways was expected to restart flights between Doha and Egypt today, pending approval, sources at Cairo airport said. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have reopened air spaces to Qatar after a historic Gulf summit that ended a rift.
We will continue because that is our growth strategy — we are not going to walk away from routes that we were already operating.” Akbar Al Baker | Qatar Airways CEO
Qatar Airways will continue to operate the routes that it started after the rift with Saudi Arabia and rest of the Gulf States, said Akbar Al Baker, the airline’s CEO, during a virtual event yesterday.
“We will continue because that is our growth strategy — we are not going to walk away from routes that we were already operating,” said Al Baker, during a virtual interview organised by CAPA. “Qatar Airways will serve all the routes that we had launched after the blockade and before the Covid- 19 restrictions happened,” he added.
Qatar’s flagship carrier has increase dits network to include 110 destinations, compared to just 33 at the beginning of the pandemic in March. It has plans to serve 129 destinations by March. Al Baker said that UK’s split from Europe will not impact Qatar Airways’ investment in International Airlines Group ( IAG) – the parent company of British Airways.
“No, I think this has not affected our ownership of it,” said Al Baker, in reference to Qatar Airways’ 25 per cent stake in the company. “Therewill not be toomuch business traffic, but this is only for the time being - I am certain the business traffic will start growing once the pandemic is brought under control,” said Al Baker.