Egypt’s Air Cairo, SunExpress ink cooperation agreement

Air Cairo (SM, Cairo Int’l) is making a major push into the German-speaking market, having signed a sales cooperation agreement with SunExpress (XQ, Antalya) to market and manage up to 30 flights per week to the Red Sea resort of Hurghada from 14 airports in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Under the agreement, SunExpress, a joint venture between Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int’l) and Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul New), will take care of all flight planning, revenue management, and sales; with Air Cairo, an EgyptAir (MS, Cairo Int’l) subsidiary, operating the flights. The flights will be bookable from the end of March, with take-off at the end of May/beginning of June, gradually adding flights ahead of the European summer holidays. In the course of the partnership, SunExpress and Air Cairo planned to expand the venture to other airports outside of German-speaking countries, SunExpress said in a statement. The charter holiday specialist currently serves a route network of 51 international destinations with its fleet of fifty-one B737-800s. Air Cairo Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hussein Sherif, said the Benelux countries would be targeted next. The aim of the sales push was to boost tourism to Egypt to pre-COVID-19 levels. The new venture will make use of Air Cairo’s incoming A320-200Ns and coincides with the introduction of onboard streaming services, plus a new look and functionality of its website, offering ancillary services.