EGYPTAIR News 29 May

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EgyptAir flight lands safely in Jeddah despite burst tire

The incident happened as EgyptAir flight MS643, which had departed from Cairo International Airport, was landing at Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport. The pilot safely landed the Boeing 737-800 and all passengers disembarked with no injuries, the statement said.

The airline said an examination and maintenance of the plane were underway at King Abdulaziz Airport.

The flight was scheduled for departure from Cairo at 9:25pm on Saturday, but it actually took off at 10:05pm and arrived at 1:25am, instead of the scheduled arrival time at 11:30pm, according to the EgyptAir website.

EgyptAir's New Dhaka Boeing 787 Service Is Bangladesh's Only Non-Stop African Flight

On May 14th, EgyptAir left its Cairo hub bound for Dhaka. Bangladesh's enormously populous capital again became connected non-stop to Africa on a regular basis after Libya's Afriqiyah Airways ended Tripoli service in 2010. EgyptAir's launch came six days after Ethiopian Airlines started Karachi, Pakistan, the

ity gaining its first African link in years

EgyptAir to Dhaka: a summary

Operating on Wednesdays and Sundays, EgyptAir deploys 309-seat Boeing 787-9s to Dhaka, 3,626 miles )5,835 km( away. These have 279 seats in economy and 30 in business. It is scheduled as follows, with all times local:

Cairo to Dhaka: MS970, 08:45-19:00 )7h 15m block time( Dhaka to Cairo: MS971, 20:30-01:15+1 )7h 45m(

Dhaka's largest African market

In pre-pandemic 2019, booking data suggests that Cairo was Dhaka's largest pointto-point )P2P( Africa market, although Johannesburg and Mauritius were not far behind.

Cairo had around 19,000 roundtrip P2P passengers. That is not much for a brandnew, long-haul widebody service, even at twice-weekly. The non-stop will hopefully meaningfully stimulate traffic, especially at that low base, but will the primary targeted passengers be willing to pay a premium for a non-stop versus the myriad of one-stops?

Just five main connecting markets

The Star Alliance member will, of course, also target transfer passengers over the Egyptian capital. However, despite EgyptAir's growing African network )20+ destinations( and operation in the near Middle East, its new Dhaka service does not revolve around these places.

Using the OAG Connections Analyzer tool indicates very few two-way transit markets. This is based on having a maximum five-hour wait )quite a long time( and flying no more than 50% further than what a non-stop would be.

Aside from some very tiny Egyptian markets, only Jeddah, Medina, JFK, Newark, and Toronto are linked to/from Bangladesh, all with a fairly speedy connection. Yes, booking data shows they had over one million Dhaka passengers in 2019, but there are many alternative airlines, most with higher frequencies and shorter trip times. Having so few onward transit markets seems concerning, especially as EgyptAir's wellestablished JFK and Toronto services are seemingly already packed during the peak season, primarily with higher-yielding P2P traffic. Indeed, due to this 'spillage', EgyptAir launches a three-weekly Cairo-Newark service on June 3rd at almost identical times to JFK. They probably do not need more loweryielding transit passengers.

Afriqiyah Airways to Dhaka

Nearly 14 years ago, in October 2009, Libya's Afriqiyah Airways launched Tripoli-Dhaka using the A330-200. It appears to have been the first African carrier with passenger service to Bangladesh, with EgyptAir now taking up the role.

Ethiopian Changes Karachi Services

This week it has been revealed that Ethiopian Airlines will be making some minor changes to its Karachi, Pakistan service. This article will cover the details surrounding the change that Ethiopian has made to its Karachi services.

Ethiopian Karachi Changes

As per data from AeroRoutes, during May and June 2023, Ethiopian Airlines has made a change to its operations to Karachi in Pakistan.

The new service for the African carrier was only inaugurated earlier this month on May 8, 2023, and was set down to be operated on a four-weekly basis using the carrier’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet.

However, due to unknown reasons, Ethiopian will be temporarily reducing the weekly frequency of their Karachi service down to three weekly from May 19, 2023, through until June 16, 2023. After these dates, the service will then increase back up to its originally planned four-weekly services.

The changes during this time frame will be as follows. Flight ET694 will depart Addis Ababa Bole Airport )ADD( at 21:45 p.m. local time, and arrive at Karachi Jinnah International Airport )KHI( at 05:05 a.m. local time the following morning operating on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The return service, flight ET695 will depart Karachi Jinnah International Airport )KHI( at 05:55 a.m. local time after a 50-minute turnaround and land back at Addis Ababa Bole Airport )ADD( at 08:55 a.m. local time, operating on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Ethiopian Airlines currently operates 13 Boeing 737 MAX 8s, all with a seating configuration of 16 Business and 144 Economy class seats. The carrier still has a backlog for a further 19 of the type for an eventual total of 32 Boeing 737 MAX 8s. It is worth noting that Ethiopian does have options to take a further 15 Boeing 737 MAX 8s on top of the firm 32 so their fleet could creep up to 47 if those options are exercised.

Lufthansa to Resume Hyderabad

This week it has been revealed that Lufthansa will be resuming its Hyderabad, India services in January 2024.

This article will cover the details surrounding Lufthansa’s resumption of services to Hyderabad in India and their operations to the city.

As per data from AeroRoutes, the German flag carrier, Lufthansa, will be resuming its long-haul services to the Indian city of Hyderabad from its home base in Frankfurt, Germany.

The last time Lufthansa served Hyderabad from Frankfurt was back in October 2011, so nearly twelve years later, the carrier is finally returning the service. The restart of their Hyderabad route will commence on January 16, 2024, and will be operated three times per week using the carrier’s brand-new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.

Flight LH752 will depart Frankfurt Airport )FRA( at 10:00 a.m. and land in Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International Airport )HYD( at 23:00 p.m. The outbound service will be operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. All times stated are local. Flight LH753 will depart Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International Airport )HYD( at 01:00 a.m. and arrive back at Frankfurt Airport )FRA( at 06:10 a.m. The return service will be operated on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. All times states are local.

Lufthansa currently has five Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners in its fleet with a further 34 on order. All currently have a seating configuration of a total of 294 seats broken down as, 26 Business, 21 Premium Economy and 247 Economy class seats.

Five of Lufthansa’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will be transferred to group partner Austrian Airlines to replace their ageing three Boeing 767-300ERs and six Boeing 777-200ERs.

European Airlines Halved Flight Cancellations Last Month

Traveled somewhere across Europe in April? Chances are you made it there with fewer delays or cancellations than in March, according to aviation data firm Cirium. In its latest On-Time Performance )OTP( report for April 2023, the firm has revealed the best airlines to travel with to avoid disrupting your holiday plans.

Cancellations dropped by half

Leading the worldwide OTP, Spanish flag carrier Iberia is reported to have an impressive 87.28% on-time arrival performance across its nearly 14,000 flights operated in April. Iberia's completion factor was 99.31%, almost a whole percentage point above its nearest OTP competitors,

Latin American Avianca and LATAM

Despite its ranking, the IAG Group airline slumped to second place in Europe, sitting behind LOT Polish Airlines. The Polish flag carrier operated about half the flights of Iberia, though it managed an 89.25% on-time arrival, with a 99.72% completion rate. Norwegian Air Shuttle, Austrian Airlines, and Finnair rounded out the top five, with OTP at 87.15%, 86.83%, and 85.23%, respectively. Norwegian did manage to scoop third place among global low-cost carriers, sitting behind South African Safair and Japan's Solaseed Air. Iberia subsidiary Iberia Express took fifth place.

The largest carriers on the list, Vueling and KLM, ranked sixth and seventh, operating almost 20,000 each. Spanish budget carrier Vueling saw 83.08% on-time arrivals, while The Netherlands-based KLM was reported to have 79.10%. The average OTP performance for Europe's Top 10 was 82.57%, slightly below the global average.

Overall, cancellations across the continent fell by 48% to 7,486 during April, compared to March's 14,405, likely owed to decreased strike action during the period.

Interestingly, once again - no British airlines cracked the top ten. Earlier this year, the UK's aviation industry came under criticism following the release of OAG's 2023 Punctuality League, covering data from 2022. British Airways achieved a mediocre on-time performance of 64%, a 12-point decrease from 2019's figures. Cancellations similarly reached 2.79%. UK carriers lagged well behind their continental competitors, with no airlines ranking among the most punctual for the year.

May, June, and beyond

Moving into the summer holiday period, a range of strikes are currently scheduled, potentially leading to disruption and increased delays through the next several months.

In Spain, the Spanish Airline Pilots' Union )SEPLA( has called for several days of strikes at Air Europa, with the next batch beginning May 29 to 30 and again June 1 to 2. Further action has been threatened if the airline fails to negotiate a "fair agreement" during a row over pay. SEPLA-affiliated pilots at other airlines, including low-cost powerhouses Ryanair and easyJet, are also reportedly considering strike action this summer.

France's ongoing Air Traffic Controller )ATC( workers' strike will last until June 1. The long-running industrial action began in March and has affected thousands of flights in and around French airspace.

Italian airports are set for a 24-hour ground handling walkout on June 4, in a similar dispute over pay and poor working conditions. Italian law will prevent action during peak morning and evening hours, minimizing significant disruption to travel.

What are your thoughts on Europe's on-time performance? Did you notice fewer delays in April 2023? Let us know in the comments.

Preparation by Public Relations