Head of Egyptian Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation (EHCAAN) Mahmoud Esmat estimated a 50% decline in revenues in second quarter (Q2) of fiscal year (FY) 2015/2016 despite achieving an 18% increase in revenues through the first quarter of current fiscal year.

He said both Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada airports acquired 70% of total revenues of the Egyptian company’s affiliated airports.

Esmat said air traffic in Sharm El-Sheikh Airport recently witnessed an estimated decline of 65% since Russia and Britain suspended their flights there. Air traffic in Hurghada Airport declined by 15% over the past two months compared to the same period in the previous year.

About 65% of Egyptian airports’ revenues depend on landing, accommodation, and departure fees, while 35% of the revenues depend on commercial services in airports, which have not been affected.

EHCAAN formed a committee to review the rent and financial dues of the commercial facilities in Sharm El-Sheikh Airport to decrease these dues in light of the decline of the airport’s air traffic.

Chairman and CEO of EgyptAir Hisham El-Nahas said his company incurred slight losses to its customers due to the suspension of flights between Cairo and Moscow. He told Daily News Egypt that EgyptAir resorted to distributing its customers who booked flights on EgyptAir to Russia through other companies.

The US decision to stop freighting goods on passenger planes left a slightly negative impact since EgyptAir benefits slightly from cargo fees on passenger planes.

Chairman of EgyptAir Cargo Bassem Gohar said the US decision to stop freighting goods on passenger planes after the Russian place crash, incurring the company loses estimated at 40 tonnes freighted daily to the US.

The US decided earlier to stop freighting goods from Egypt on passenger planes and decided to use only air cargo aircrafts for them and the goods should stay in Egypt for 48 hours and in the transit country for the same period.

Gohar said EgyptAir seeks to conduct an air cargo flight per week to the US as well as other transit flights.