The Tourism Fund, affiliated to the Ministry of Tourism, agreed to increase the incentives granted to charter flights through a plan covering January to April 2016, according to a memo received by Daily News Egypt.
The Egyptian government launched a plan in December 2015 that hopes to recover Egyptian tourism with the aim of reducing the negative effects that stemmed from Russia and Britain suspending flights in the aftermath of the Russian plane crash in Sinai last October.
According to the memo, the recovery plan in Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh from January to April requires the government to subsidise flights, that take less than four hours, by $40, and flights that take 4 hours or more by $45. These rates are applied in case the occupancy ratio of the plane is 50-90%.
Flights with an occupancy ratio of more than 90% were not excluded from the plan, even if the capacity meets 100%. However, no incentives will be granted to flights with occupancy less than 50%.
Required occupancy ratios were decreased to provide incentives for flights coming to both Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada airports due to the decline in the number of tourists. In addition, the incentives granted to each seat increased by $10, with a maximum of $3,000 per flight, according to the official in the Tourism Fund.
He added that these incentives will only be applied between January and the end of the April. The plan will be reviewed monthly to examine the results and to see if the plan is worth extending.
Britain suspended its flights to Sharm El-Sheikh at the beginning of last November in the aftermath of the Russian plane crash, while Russia has halted its flights to all tourist areas in Egypt until investigations into the incident are completed.
The government assigned the task of evaluating Egyptian airport security to the British company Control Risks, which will finish its review of security measures at Sharm El-Sheikh and Marsa Alam airports at the end of April.
