Egypt’s air traffic on way to recovery after revolution; Saudi market doubling

Since anna.aero last analysed the Egyptian market in February last year, the country’s airports experienced another record year in 2010. Passenger numbers grew by 15% to a total of 40.2 million passengers.

This year, developments have taken a different turn. Although passenger numbers in January were up by 9.5%, the uprising that began at the end of that month and escalated into a revolution had an adverse effect on the country’s air transport industry.

In February, passenger numbers fell by 65.5% across Egypt’s airports, however, as the country shows stability under its new regime, passengers are returning to the market. The latest figures for June 2011 are still down by 22.8% and the recovery at the country’s biggest airport – Cairo, which stands for 43% of total passenger numbers – has been constant.

The exception to the rule has been Alexandria’s Borg El Arab Airport, which reopened in 2010 after modernisation works and became the country’s seventh-largest airport by passenger throughput by the end of the year. After a small dip into the red in February, the airport has reported strong positive growth for the rest of the first half of 2011. The airport can be expected to continue to grow as flights currently serving the busier Alexandria International (El Nouzha) will move over to Borg El Arab during renovation and expansion works at the former airport.