Yanbu-Cairo Flights Won’t Compete With Ferry Service

It takes $240 to fly from Yanbu, in Saudi Arabia and Cairo in Egypt, on the Almasria Universal Airlines. The new route, approved by aviation authorities in the two countries, target mainly Egyptian expatriate workers in the Kingdom and Saudi tourists intending to visit Egyptian resorts.  The “one-flight daily”, launched in late December 2009, is clearly a very minor competition to the waterway traffic between Safarga and Dhuba ports in  Egypt and Saudi Arabia respectively. The latest ferry services between these  two ports was launched in July, with each ship capable of carrying 1,220 passengers. They are expected to reduce travel time between the two ports from eight hours to two hours and 15 minutes.  In contrast, the (current) total passenger capability of the Yanbu-Cairo flight is 158. Authorities say that the flights can be increased to four; as the number of passengers on the route is expected to increase during Hejj and Umrah seasons as well as in the summer.