Egypt says it will not enter 'war of words' with Saudi over flight bans

The Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) has suspended all traffic between Medinah and Cairo after accusing Egypt of breaching international regulations by preventing private airlines from using Cairo Airport. "The Egyptian CAA does not allow any private sector or charter airlines to land at Cairo Airport. This is a monopoly that is against all international and local calls," a GACA spokesman said.

The row started when Saudi low-cost carriers NAS and SAMA planes were denied clearance to carry passengers to Cairo despite ade-regulation agreement between the two nations. As a result of the dispute, Saudi Arabian Airlines was also disallowed from transporting Egyptian Umrah pilgrims from Cairo to Madinah's Prince Muhammad Airport last week. GACA reacted instantly by denying permission to EgyptAir to land in Madinah.

Egyptian government owns the airports and the major airlines EgyptAir and EgyptAir Express and at the Aviation Outlook conference held in Cairo this week, there was criticism of the policy to restrict low cost carriers to locations such as Alexandria - a three hour train journey from the capital.

Sources in GACA say that the open skies agreement was not implemented properly because of EgyptAir's fear that budget airlines would dominate the industry. The source added that NAS and SAMA had agreed to keep their fares to Cairo identical with the normal fares of Saudi Airlines and EgyptAir.

A spokesman for Egyptian CAA said "We will not reply to the Saudi statement, simply becasue we beleive that the strong European-Saudi ties will help find a  resolution to the crisis."

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq,confirmed this week that no private-sector or charter airlines are allowed to land at Cairo airport, and they are only permitted to land at airports located outside the capital, he also told Kuwait official news agency KUNA that  try{document.write(zawya_banner_zone('zone9337')); }catch(e){} "There currently are no negotiations between the Egyptian and Saudi aviation authorities to resolve the issue,"

At the Outlook conference Dr. Hamdi Chaouk, the director general of Lebanon's Civil Aviation Authority said he had been almost jailed twice in the fight to get full liberalisation of lebanon's skies. "You  need to have strong personalities who believe in what they are doing. In every case Open Skies has led to greater numbers and greater employment."

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq,did confirm that no private-sector or charter airlines are allowed to land at Cairo airport, and they are only permitted to land at airports located outside the capital, in an interview with the Kuwait official news agency KUNA Air Marshall Shafiq said  try{document.write(zawya_banner_zone('zone9337')); }catch(e){} "There currently are no negotiations between the Egyptian and Saudi aviation authorities to resolve the issue."