How has Egyptair coped with the political events of January?
We showed great flexibility. Even though Cairo airport was operating normally during these weeks of crisis, we nevertheless had to ground 30 %s from our fleet due to the absence of passengers. We then worked on a daily basis, announcing our programme every day on television and in the newspapers.
What about traffic?
The situation has improved significantly since last March. We have regained all our frequencies and are even starting to inaugurate new routes. This represents an increase in seat capacity of 5 % compared with summer 2010! We are inaugurating routes from Alexandria to Dubai and Jeddah as well as from Cairo to Baghdad and Erbil in Iraq and to Abha in Saudi Arabia. However, we have decided to postpone the opening of routes to Toronto and Washington.
What are your forecasts for this year?
We recorded an 80 % drop in passenger traffic in February. We expect total traffic to fall by between 10 % and 15 %, with a likely loss of $180 million for the 2011-2012 financial year. But we have high hopes for the winter season, with the delivery of new aircraft including three Airbus A330-300s and two Boeing 737-800s. And I'm sure that our revolution will have a positive impact on tourism.
