Egypt Air has limit on how many flights it can land at Madinah airport in a dispute that has led to Saudia flights from Madinah being prevented from landing at Cairo, and the Kingdom’s two budget airlines, NAS and SAMA, reduced the number of flights they can land at Egyptian destinations.
The GACA statement, a copy of which was received by Arab News, states that GACA has been working for 10 years to ease restrictions between itself and its Egyptian counterpart. An agreement was subsequently signed removing all flight restrictions between the two countries in 2006. The agreement was, however, restricted to Egypt Air and Saudia.
According to that agreement, Egypt Air would only be allowed to operate a single daily flight to Madinah and that flights may be increased at peak times, sometimes to three or four times a day.
ECAA also agreed to allow both NAS and SAMA to land at different Egyptian airports. It, however, prevented the two airlines from landing in Cairo, where only Egypt Air and Saudia are allowed to land. “This is a monopoly that is against all international and local rules,” said the statement. To stop the monopoly, GACA asked ECAA to allow both NAS and SAMA and other Egyptian airlines to operate flights.
GACA said this would encourage large Saudi families to visit Egypt and make it easy for Egyptian pilgrims to travel using less expensive flights rather than other dangerous means of transportation, such as by boat.
ECAA, however, disagreed and said that “Cairo does not receive any commercial airlines.” GACA hoped the Egyptians would take a positive step forward, especially since GACA does not prevent Egyptian flights from landing at any of its airports.
GACA added that it asked ECAA for a meeting in Jeddah last February but the Egyptians refused and were unable to provide “convincing” excuses.
Because of this, GACA implemented Article 11 of the agreement that limits the number of flights that arrive at Madinah airport, especially since the airport is currently under development. The agreement also states that ECAA should make formal requests prior to increasing Egyptian flights to Madinah.
As a result of the implementation, ECAA stopped Saudia flights from Madinah landing in Cairo, a move that is harming Egyptian pilgrims. Authorities in Egypt have also restricted the number of NAS and SAMA flights, as previously agreed.
