Travelers from the continent headed to Ireland have a new flight option as Egypt’s flag carrier EgyptAir plans to introduce year-round nonstop scheduled services between Ireland and Egypt even as travel rebounds in a (hopefully) post-COVID-19 world.
This is in light of the carrier’s strategy to expand its network to the most dynamic cities and hubs around the world. The route from Cairo (CAI) will begin on June 2, operating four times per week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Satudays and Sundays using the Airbus A320neo aircraft as the airline moves come as
Flying Again
The two countries have been without a non-stop connection for more than six years with Thomson Airways (now TUI Airways) last serving the route in January 2016 when it cut its year-round Dublin-Sharm El-Sheikh (SSH) service.
The route is now expected to attract leisure and business traffic, serving Arab communities in Ireland as well as opening up new destinations in Africa and the Middle East for Irish passengers on Egyptair’s network of more than 75 destinations.
Vincent Harrison, Managing Director at Dublin Airport welcomed the news saying, “We’re very pleased to welcome EGYPTAIR to Ireland and to add Cairo to Dublin Airport’s extensive route network. Cairo is one of the world’s great cities and we will be working closely with EGYPTAIR to promote this new route, which will be welcomed by both business and leisure travellers.”
Captain Amr Nabil, EGYPTAIR AIRLINES Chairman and & CEO said, “We are glad to announce the cooperation with Dublin Airport to link Egypt and Ireland as of June 2. We as EGYPTAIR expect potential traffic between the two countries connecting the customers to beyond Dublin and Cairo on EGYPTAIR extended network in the Middle East and Africa with state of the art fleet of aircraft. EGYPTAIR is planning to operate its newest A320 NEO providing 16 seats in business class and 126 seats in economy class. The aircraft is further equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity and on-board mobile roaming service.”
Captain Amr added, “Due to Ireland’s significant location on the western part of the European continent, Dublin Airport represents a strategic hub for passengers flying to Egypt’s top leisure destinations; namely Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada, Luxor and Aswan, in addition to EGYPTAIR network reaching more than 40 destinations in the Middle East and Africa and more destinations would be added in the near future.”
Istanbul (IST) was the largest one-stop connecting point, followed by Frankfurt (FRA) and London Heathrow (LHR) in the absence of non-stop connections.
