FTI, which is the German market leader for holidays in Egypt, announced this week that it will offer 28 weekly flights to the country in winter 2016/17 compared to 23 last winter and 18 this summer. The charter flights will operate to Hurghada, Marsa Alam and Luxor from November onwards. Key airline partners are Sun Express, Air Berlin, Condor and Germania.
The Munich-based tour operator said the new flight programme follows “intensive discussions with the government” in the last two weeks during which “controversial points could be clarified with the support of our shareholder and Egyptian investor Samih Sawiris”. FTI did not disclose what these issues had been. Last month, FTI denied Egyptian media reports that it would cut back its programme for the struggling destination following a dispute with the country’s new tourism minister Yehia Rashed.
“Good cooperation with the Egyptian government is an important pillar. We will develop our activities as planned and expand our engagement in Luxor and El Gouna,” declared FTI CEO Dietmar Gunz.
Sven Schikarsky, Managing Director Tour Operating Package, added: “We’re delighted that we can expand capacity. The flight programme to Hurghada will even double with eight additional flights on Wednesdays.”
He emphasised that German travel agents had experienced the “the attractiveness of the product” for themselves at recent annual conferences and on fam trips. “The positive reactions of agency staff reassure us that this is the right path,” he commented.
FTI is heavily committed to Egypt with a large-scale holidays programme as well as through shareholder Samih Sawiris, head of the Orascom Development Holding, which operates the El Gouna resort and other hotels.
* FTI has also opened up key parts of its winter 2016/17 programme, including more than 1,000 hotels, for bookings. German travel agents can now book FTI holidays in Germany, Austria, the Canary Islands, Morocco, Egypt and Oman (Salalah) along with offers for the USA and Australia. “By opening the winter programme for bookings, our customers have the opportunity to book early top hotels in popular destinations that are in strong demand,” said Schikarsky.
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