21 - 27 June 2001
Issue No.539
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 June 2001 Issue No.539 |
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Unblocking the drains
Egypt's airports have been something of a headache for a succession of governments, beginning with that of Atef Sidqi, under whom the groundwork for economic reform was lain, and continuing to the government of the current prime minister, Atef Ebeid. For despite substantial improvements in the national infrastructure over the years, airports have continued to lag behind.
With the best will in the world it remains impossible to describe Cairo Airport as anything other than depressing. And that is from the point of view of the passenger. It is hardly a situation that provides a positive image of Egypt for the millions of tourists who use the airport as their point of entry and exit. But the situation, if anything, is worse for those engaged in trade, especially the export or import of horticultural products or other fragile commodities. The level of services in Egypt's airports have made them a standing joke amongst a long-suffering Egyptian public.
This week Prime Minister Atef Ebeid held a cabinet meeting to review efforts to upgrade the services offered in Egyptian airports and to examine the conditions included in BOT contracts for airport construction. The aim of the review is to spell out clearly the commitments of both the investors and the government. The latter, after all, will assume the management of the airports at the end of the term specified within the contract. The meeting suggests a degree of worry over the manner in which BOT contracts have been framed. Two projects contracted under BOT arrangements -- Mersa Alam and Alamein airports -- are reported to be near completion.
Yet meanwhile, and in the face of the pressing need to decentralise the management of airports, the flow of goods and passengers remains confined, for all intents and purposes, to Cairo Airport. This is despite the need for more chartered flights transporting tourists directly from Europe to resorts such as Sharm El-Sheikh and other potentially lucrative tourist spots.
We are, it seems, as far away from ever from solving the problems of congestion in Egypt's airports. We are even further, perhaps, from transforming local airports from their present sorry state to the condition necessary if they are ever to compete with, say, Dubai International Airport. Because of the quality of transit procedures and the duty free services offered Dubai has established itself firmly as a regional leader, the main intercontinental cross point connecting Europe with the Indian sub-peninsula and Southeast Asia.
Part of the airports' paralysis is caused by a short-sighted bureaucracy that views the services they offer as nothing more than a cash cow, a highly lucrative source of revenue. It is a view the prevalence of which has been brought home in an unpleasant manner in a case currently being reviewed by the Supreme State Security Court. A former minister of finance, and a former head of the customs authority both face corruption charges. It is a case that clearly underlines the extent to which senior, as well as petty, officials have vied for control of the revenues of these vital outlets. And although time and again the president of the republic himself has had to intervene to resolve problems arising at the airport's cargo village, the problems continue.
The economy is unlikely to attain any significant development in the domain of transport and tourism unless an administrative revolution allows for the privatisation of airports, and of EgyptAir, the company that for decades has exercised a monopoly over airport ground services and on the aviation sector. EgyptAir's position has effectively stifled competition and the possibility of any development. Selling the monolith and restructuring it is now absolutely in order. The administration of Egyptian airports, in addition, should be handed over to private companies, even if the only qualified candidates are foreign operators. Airports are channels to the wider world, the world with which Egypt must trade to survive. They cannot be obstructed.
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