■ EGYPT: Egyptair Express to be liquidated, with E170 fleet returned to Egyptair on the back of poor finances.

According to Egyptian paper, Ahram, EgyptAir Express (MSE) is to be reintegrated into its parent company, Egyptair (MS), six years after it was launched to offer passengers increased frequencies on domestic and thin international routes, such as Cairo-Budapest.

 

Egyptair Express E170 (DYakovlev)

It is understood that the carrier will be liquidated with its staff and fleet of 12 Embraer-E170LRs returned to EgyptAir, having failed to become financially viable.

The carrier's initial focus was in adding frequencies to EgyptAir's domestic services in addition to boosting MS's market share in the face of liberalized competition. Following the sharp drop in passenger numbers seen after the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Egyptair was forced to move some of its strategic short-haul routes to Egyptair Express in order to maintain frequencies whilst preserving market presence. Despite this, and in light of hefty global oil prices, Egyptair Express has struggled to remain in the black.

No news as yet has been posted as to how this will affect the carrier's proposed deal with CTK CiTyLinK of Ghana, in whom Egyptair Express were said to have purchased a majority shareholding in the hopes of commencing regional operations in West Africa.