“The travel and tourism agents preferred to use aircraft to take their customers to the Kingdom instead of ships after a number of shipping disasters in the Red Sea over the past few years,” he told Arab News.
Basil Al-Sisi, chairman of the economic committee at the Egyptian Chamber of Travel and Tourism Agencies, attributed the inclination toward air travel to the fact that the Saudi agents of the Egyptian Umrah companies were not in favor of welcoming sea pilgrims from Egypt due to the numerous problems involved. “And the vessels are not safe,” he said.
On the other hand, sources of the EgyptAir said the airline company has increased the air fare to Saudi Arabia to EGP3,193 from EGP2,775. They said the new price will be applicable for peak Ramadan seasonal travel.
Regional director of EgyptAir in Saudi Arabia Samir Ambabi said the airline will run a total of 325 Umrah flights to carry about 85,000 Egyptian pilgrims.
He said two Boeing 767 aircraft each with a capacity of 300 passengers have been rented to join the fleet of EgyptAir in the light of the increase of the number of people traveling between Cairo and Jeddah.
Ambabi said the flights peak in the middle Ramadan until the end of the holy month.
“At this time there are 12 daily flights from Cairo to Jeddah,” he said.
He said seats are available for anyone wishing to do Umrah during Ramadan and added that their Jeddah office has been reinforced with a number of employees to expedite the travel procedures for customers.
