A Word on Flying Egypt Air

I’ve now had four sectors of domestic flight with Egypt Air Express and am writing this on the international leg to Athens with Egypt Air. I have to record some comments.

First, everything ultimately works as it should. The planes leave roughly on time, fly safely, and arrive at their appointed destinations. Check-in and baggage handling all appear to be smooth, although Ray or other guides handled most of the check-in stuff for me. I get seats that I want (e.g. window exit row on this flight), again, largely because my guides look after me. So, the process bits are all ok.

But there’s no doubt that Egypt Air is a “no frills” airline, particularly its Express domestic element. They fly Brazilian 80-seaters, which a good enough aircraft, but there’s no in-flight entertainment, no in-flight service  other than a box of juice handed out before the flight’s doors are shut, and there’s a general sense of unkemptness about the plane. The three flight attendants on each flight appear to be there on sufferance and care little for simple things, like ensuring compliance with in-flight policy. I swear to you that the guy sitting beside me on the flight from Aswan to Cairo was talking on his mobile phone during take-off! Not just on the taxiway but as we pulled off the ground and the wheels came up! On an Australian domestic flight, I would expect him to be fed his phone for such behaviour. On Egypt Air Express, no comment, no action and apparently no problem. <sigh>

The other no frills bit of Egypt Air is that it seems that they do not pay for gates/jetways. Every flight I’ve had involved departing the terminal to a bus, being driven to the plane, and at the other end, getting onto a bus from the plane and being driven to the terminal. It’s not big problem, but it is kind of weird to walk ~100m down a jetway to then walk down some moveable stairs to get onto a bus to drive me to a plane that’s only 200m away parked on the tarmac, as I did on this flight.

Of course, the other element of flying Egypt Air is that there’s a large number of Egyptians on board. While always polite to me, they certainly have their own views about how the flight will unfold and things like: where their cabin baggage will be stowed; just how much there is of that; what “remain seated with your seatbelts fastened” really means; and how little importance is placed on “please remain seated until the aircraft comes to a complete halt and the fasten seatbelt sign is turned off”. It’s all part of being Egyptian, I think. I will have more to say on that shortly.