EgyptAir grows its hub role, expanding 60% in Africa as European tourism slowly recovers

EgyptAir is pursuing rapid expansion in Africa as it looks to drive further increases in transit traffic, which has helped the carrier recover from the crisis of early 2011. The Star Alliance carrier expects to post a break-even result for the fiscal year ending 30-Jun-2013 (FY2013) and be back in the black in FY2014, featuring a vastly different and more balanced network than it had prior to the Jan-2011 revolution.

Over the last two years EgyptAir has more than doubled its international capacity within Africa, albeit from a modest base. The increased focus on Africa will continue in 2H2013 as four more destinations are added.

Africa and a bigger operation in the nearby Middle East has helped EgyptAir reduce its reliance on Europe in the aftermath of the crisis, which led to a significant drop in inbound tourist traffic. The larger regional network also has supported a significant increase in transit traffic, from only 3% prior to the crisis to about 17% currently. The increase in transit traffic along with more local traffic within the Middle East/Africa region, where demand has been rising rapidly, significantly improves EgyptAir's outlook.