Catering for the Egyptiam spirit

Some companies opt to outsource these services while other airlines develop in-house resources to ensure the quality and delivery is exactly to their specifications.

EgyptAir developed its own in-flight services division known as the aircraft services and catering division more than fifty years ago but in line with the EgyptAir group of segmenting the businesses into individual units, the division reformed as a separate company in 2002 and branded itself as EgyptAir In-flight Services (EAIFS)

“This meant we had to look at how we worked and what else we could do,” said chairman Mostafa Hassan ElGammal. “We were providing in-flight services for the entire fleet of EgyptAir and began to push as delivering service to other airline companies as well.”

ElGammal talks about the “Egyptian spirit”.  “The Egyptians are hospitable people and welcoming. We made it part of our vision to deliver a competitive service to our customers with that true Egyptian spirit.”

ElGammal and his vice chairman, Ahmed Ragheb show the other side of that ‘spirit’ as well. A determination to succeed.

“There are key drivers for us,” said Ragheb. “Safety, quality, suitability and food hygiene are the keys to our competitiveness. We cannot and must not fail on any of these elements in our products and services. It is important for us to be seen as being environmentally responsible in any of the places we are operating.”

ElGammal said “Human health is the most important issue in our industry to implement and it is our policy to exceed all applicable government requirements.”

The company has facilities at Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh with the two regional complexes having the capacity for 7,000 meals a day while currently serving between 3,000 and 4,000 a day.

At Cairo, the second busiest airport in Africa after Johannesburg,  EAIFS has almost 3,000 employees and serves an average 20,000 meals a day there is even more opportunity for expansion.

ElGammal said EAIFS is looking at new ideas and has established LSG Sky Chefs Catering Egypt as a joint venture with German-owned LSG Sky Chefs. EAIFS holds 70 percent of the shares, while LSG Sky Chefs and Egyptian Aviation Services (EAS) are minority shareholders with 15 percent each. LSG Sky Chefs heads the entire operation with an experienced management team.

"Through this joint venture agreement we aim to contribute to the development of Cairo as a catering and logistics platform for Africa and the Middle East." Ragheb said.

"We have been present in Cairo for more than 30 years and we are very happy to expand our activities with this joint venture agreement," said LSG’s Thomas Nagel.

When LSG Sky Chefs established a catering unit in Cairo in 1978, it was its first one outside of Germany. Since 1992, the in-flight services provider has been operating a customer service centre with EAS under a management contract. The combined catering activities of EAIFS, EAS and LSG Sky Chefs will increase the amount of meals produced in the facility from the current 2,000 to 7,200 meals per day. The planning phase for the operational transfer has already started in tandem with the building of a new facility with state-of-the-art technology according to international food safety and hygiene standards.

As well as EgyptAir, EAIFS has a good range of customers including Singapore Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, Etihad, Kenya Airways, SAS, Turkish Airlines and Yemenia.

“We work closely with the airlines to deal with special menu requirements” ElGemmal said.

EAIFS also provides in-flight duty-free items and now also operates a number of food outlets in Cairo’s International airport.

“We believe in the service,” said Ragheb. “We manage the laundry for the aircraft fabrics and linens, we supply dry ice and we are even providing event catering for the conferences and training sessions that take place on airport or civil aviation property.”

In the past two years EAIFS revenues have almost doubled from just over $36million to $72million and further expansion is planned with additional locations planned at Borg El-Arab to serve the new Alexandria Airport and a new catering unit at Luxor.