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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons A difficult venture
By Tarek Atia
The government recently announced major plans to upgrade the country's civil aviation sector. Arabic-language newspapers have been front-paging news of new airports and technology, a re-structuring of the national carrier and the possibility of increased competition from private airlines, both domestically and internationally.
The airline industry, in any country, is a behemoth; certainly not something that can be changed in a day. At least in terms of increased competition between domestic airlines, experts at both the governmental and private levels are not predicting major changes in the near future, despite the recent lofty pronouncements. Talking about establishing and running scheduled flights, with all their components -- pilots, crews, catering, maintenance, etc. -- is one thing, and implementation is something else altogether.
Still, over a dozen private companies -- mainly of the charter and air taxi type -- currently operate, and the door is technically open to anyone to apply. At the headquarters of the civil aviation sector, near the airport, you can buy a book for LE50 that details the process for getting approval to start a private airline. "Lots of people apply," says an engineer at the sector. "We check their planes, their pilots, make sure everything is all right, but nobody follows through."
The long and short of it is that the only types of flights these companies can handle, for now, are the limited charter services to destinations not covered by EgyptAir where they can guarantee the planes will be full. "Having scheduled flights is much more difficult. You have to run the flight even if there are only five people on board," pointed out a civil aviation source.
Building a fleet such as EgyptAir's is no small task. The national carrier had to endure many such empty flights and heavy losses in order to expand its hefty destination list.
But it is precisely this list that is the source for where potential competition may arise. Currently, to the dismay of some of the larger charters, regulations only allow charters to fly routes not offered by EgyptAir. One of the airlines flies charters from Hurghada, for instance, direct to several cities in France and Germany. Any attempt to cut into EgyptAir's flight pattern is rebuffed.
However, even when a charter gets approval to fly regularly scheduled flights to a city not covered by EgyptAir (Warsaw, Poland and Nice, France, for example), they do not have the resources or ability to carry it through, according to a civil aviation source.
For the charters' part, they are asking for equal footing on some of the routes operated by EgyptAir. Most of these routes are international. In fact, the domestic market is not a prime concern for one airline. "The fares are too low to really make a profit," says a veteran charter pilot.
Another pilot disagrees: "True competition is honest and open. It makes no sense to say 'you can't go there because EgyptAir goes there'. They say we have to protect the national carrier, but what does that mean? The customer should decide who offers the best service. The tourism industry wants this. The country wants this."
The pilot -- formerly of EgyptAir -- may have a point, but most of the businessmen whose names have been mentioned in tandem with the drive for more competition in the field are going to study their figures over and over again before taking the risk of running regularly scheduled flights.
"They're kidding themselves," is the opinion of a charter veteran, an expert in the business. "They don't have the staff or the services. Without the know-how, what's the point? Moreover, it will be a big advantage to EgyptAir if they do it and fail, because then EgyptAir will say 'I told you so'."
"Let them get involved and I promise you they will lose all the money they've made all these years within a year," he says. "Be realistic. You are actually going to hurt tourism if you do that."
This veteran thinks everybody's priorities need to be rearranged. "If we want to be a country of mass tourism, then let's develop the infrastructure first before thinking of opening up things like domestic airlines. Fix the airports first, get rid of the long queues, do things that will make people want to come back and tell their friends to come."
Arguing that EgyptAir itself can be transformed to better utilise its tremendous potential (its strength and prestige are always mentioned in any discussion), one expert says that "currently, pilots aren't punished for mistakes. All our engineers, technicians and cabin crew who go abroad or work in private companies perform well. Why? Because if they don't, they'll be out of a job. We need to enforce those same guidelines here..."
At the same time, the charter companies want to be allowed more leeway to expand flights coming from their own niches in the market, like Greece, Italy and Turkey.
Whether or not the private companies will be able to handle greater loads even if they are given licences to pursue them remains to be seen, as do the effects of the detailed plans that are being worked out to actually streamline EgyptAir, with its 18,000 employees and multitude of sectors. As part of his "rearranging of the house," Transport Minister Ibrahim El-Demeiri has been telling the press that a long-range plan has been formulated to gradually transform EgyptAir into a holding company, with separate management for each of its branches, in a three-phase project that will take some three years.
This most likely means that some of the most common complaints made about EgyptAir will still be around for a while: major things like maintenance problems and planes being delayed for hours and making unexpected stops on the way, as well as smaller, but perhaps equally important details like the absence of good food and service with a smile.
The recent delays on EgyptAir flights over the Eid Al-Adha [feast of sacrifice] long weekend can be attributed to the huge outflow of pilgrims from Mecca. Lebanon's Middle East Airlines (MEA) and other regional carriers have also been having the same problems.
"I could forgive them anything, if they would only admit there was a problem and apologise," commented one passenger, who was stranded at Cairo Airport for nearly seven hours waiting for a scheduled flight to Hurghada. "We're used to similar delays abroad, but at least there it's coupled with better treatment."
Thus, in many ways, it's a question of image. As a top civil aviation official says, "Competition will only improve services, and perhaps prices, but this will not happen immediately."
So if you're hoping for the day when there will be price wars and different choices of flight times and airlines, don't hold your breath for now.
