Air Sinai ( ') was an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

based in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, Egypt. It operated as a 'paper airline' for parent company Egyptair under a wet lease-like agreement to serve flights exclusively between Egypt and Israel.

History

The

Egypt–Israel peace treaty The Egypt–Israel peace treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., United States, on 26 March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The Egypt–Israel treaty was signed by Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minist ...

signed in March 1979 stipulated that there must be active civilian aviation routes between Egypt and Israel. To fulfill the treaty, Air Sinai was established in 1982 to fly scheduled services between Egypt and Israel (on routes previously flown by Nefertiti Aviation), which for political reasons could not be handled by parent company Egyptair. Services started using a Boeing 737-200 leased from Egyptair and new routes from Egypt's tourist destinations followed. By the mid-1980s a Fokker F27 Friendship was also in use on these services. During 1982, a Boeing 707-320C was leased and operated on behalf of Egyptair on their flights to Europe, especially twice weekly from Cairo to Copenhagen. Due to the tense Egypt–Israel relations, the airline operated discreetly: for a long time it had no website, public schedule of flights, markings on planes, signs at the airports, or a way to make online bookings. Air Sinai ceased airline operations in its own right in 2002 and from then on operated as a 'paper airline' for its parent company, Egyptair, using their aircraft without any markings identifying either carrier, although some aircraft were spotted during this era in Tel Aviv in full Egyptair branding. Flights were not listed in Egyptair schedules and did not appear on their website or route maps either. As of 2014, Air Sinai flights were displayed on arrival and departure boards at Cairo Airport using the

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is an airline trade association founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff conferences tha ...

code 4D. In February 2020, online booking was introduced via a website run by a third-party travel agency based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. On October 3, 2021, Egyptair commenced operating direct flights from Cairo to Tel Aviv under its livery, bringing an end to the Air Sinai era.

Destinations

Until 2021, Air Sinai served the following destinations on behalf of Egyptair. ;Egypt *

– Cairo International Airport ;Israel *

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

– Ben Gurion Airport

Fleet

Due to the nature of its operations, Air Sinai used two unmarked

Airbus A220 The Airbus A220 is a family of five-abreast narrow-body airliners by Airbus Canada Limited Partnership (ACLP). It was originally developed by Bombardier Aviation and had two years in service as the Bombardier CSeries. The program was launche ...

aircraft, SU-GFA & SU-GFD owned by Egyptair to operate its flights. Other types, including larger aircraft were also used based on operational requirements, with Egyptair markings then being removed. On some occasions, Egyptair branded aircraft have also been utilised. In September 2019, it was announced the airline would replace Embraer 170 operations with

aircraft operated by Egyptair from 1 March 2020. In December 2019, the first

flight was moved forward to 9 December 2019. In May 2021, Air Sinai's Airbus A220 have been removed from service, and subsequently begun flying for

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

's Ibom Air.

References

External links

Booking website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Air Sinai EgyptAir Airlines of Egypt Airlines established in 1982 Companies based in Cairo Egyptian companies established in 1982 Egypt–Israel relations Companies disestablished in 2021 Airlines disestablished in 2021 Government-owned companies of Egypt

History

Destinations

Fleet

See also

References

External links