National carrier EgyptAir and a private Egyptian carrier will team up to fly their first flight to Taba airport in southern Sinai on Wednesday, El Mal financial newspaper has reported, citing industry sources.
African Queen Travel has signed the contract to fly two Cairo-Taba flights per week starting tomorrow till mid-September, El Mal reported adding that EgyptAir has not flown to Taba since 2008.
The deal between EgyptAir and the private company comes after repeated pleas from tour operators and investors to reopen the airport and revive the flailing tourism industry in the border town of Taba, located at the northern tip of Aqaba bay.
Despite its pristine beaches and world class snorkelling, tourism in Taba has taken several blows because of previous closures by the Egyptian and Israeli sides sparked by fear of terrorist attacks, especially after the 2011 uprising in Egypt.
Taba Airport, one of Egypt’s smallest, received its first international flight since 2014 on August 5 with a charter flight from Poland, news reports said. It is located about 35 kilometres away from the town.
To encourage flights to the Red Sea and Southern Sinai airports post Covid-19, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is offering carriers discounts of 50% and 20% on landing fees and ground service fees respectively till October.
Visitors arriving at airports in these two regions are exempt from showing negative PCR results for Covid-19. They will not be allowed to travel on to other areas such as Cairo the capital unless they have a negative test result done in the past 72 hours.
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