Nile Air () is an Egyptian airline based at

Cairo International Airport Cairo International Airport (; ''Maṭār El Qāhira El Dawli'') is the principal international airport of Cairo and the largest and busiest airport in Egypt. It serves as the primary hub for Egyptair and Nile Air as well as several other a ...

that operates scheduled services to destinations in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

Southern Europe Southern Europe is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, C ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. Nile Air is the largest private

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 ...

in Egypt and second only to Egyptair. It is a full-service carrier (with business and economy class services) that operates scheduled services, using a fleet of

Airbus A320-200 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

s &

Airbus A321-200 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body, commercial passenger Twinjet, twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was ...

s. In addition to operations from its hub at

, the airline operates a smaller base from Alexandria's

Borg El Arab Airport Borg El Arab International Airport is an international airport of Alexandria, Egypt. It is located about southwest of Alexandria, in Borg El Arab (alternate spellings: Borg Al Arab, Burg Al Arab or Burg El Arab). The airport also serves the n ...

History

On 1 November 2009, the airline received its

Air operator's certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial air transport purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets and s ...

(AOC) from the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority, which permitted the airline to launch operations. The airline had ordered nine Airbus A321-200 aircraft in 2007, however in 2015 this order was adjusted to two aircraft. It launched operations in August 2010, operating a short-term

wet lease Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, as well as to provide ...

contract with

Libyan Arab Airlines Libyan Airlines, formerly known as ''Libyan Arab Airlines'' over several decades, is the flag carrier of Libya. Based in Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli, it operates scheduled passenger and cargo services within Libya and to Europe, North Africa and t ...

, before starting scheduled services from

in March 2011, with the launch of flights to

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. In January 2011, the airline became the first private Egyptian airline to publish its schedule and flight availability on the

Global Distribution System A global distribution system (GDS) is a computerised network system owned or operated by a company that enables transactions between travel industry service providers, mainly airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and Travel agency, travel agen ...

(GDS) and is now covered on all 3 GDS systems;

Amadeus Amadeus may refer to: People and fictional characters * Amadeus (name) Amadeus is a theophoric name, theophoric given name derived from the Latin words ' – the Imperative mood, imperative of the word ' ("to love") – and ' ("god"). As a Compou ...

Sabre Corporation Sabre Corporation, a travel technology company headquartered in Southlake, Texas, is the largest global distribution systems (GDS) provider for air bookings. The company's primary product, the Sabre Global Distribution System, and others like i ...

Travelport Travelport Worldwide Ltd. provides distribution, technology, and payment solutions for the travel and tourism industry. It is the smallest, by revenue, of the top three global distribution systems (GDS) after Amadeus IT Group and Sabre Corporatio ...

. Also in 2016, the airline became the first airline in the Middle East to use Amadeus’ complete Airline IT portfolio, which provides end-to-end IT solutions. In June 2016, Nile Air and Lila Design worked together on the Nile Air A320 special 'Egypt Tourism' livery which was unveiled on an Airbus A320 (SU-BQM). In 2017, the airline became the official airline of the

Egypt national football team The Egypt national football team (), nicknamed Pharaohs (), represents Egypt in men's FIFA, international Association football, football, and is governed by the Egyptian Football Association (EFA), the governing body of football in Egypt. Egypt ...

- the first deal of its kind. In addition, the airline is among the main sponsors of the team. In 2023, the airline wet leased the

Sudan Airways Sudan Airways () is the national airline of Sudan, headquartered in Khartoum. Since 2012, the company has been fully owned by the Government of Sudan. One of the oldest African Air carrier, carriers, it was formed in and started scheduled oper ...

A320 which is banned by the EU, to fly regional and domestic flights under Nile Air flight numbers.

Corporate affairs

Ownership

Nile Air is an Egyptian Joint Stock Company established in 2008, with 60% ownership by Egyptian individuals & companies and the remaining 40% by Dr. Nasser Al Tayyar, former President of Al Tayyar Group (now called Seera ), a prominent travel agency based in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with operations in over 15 countries. Nile Air is shown in the accounts of the Al Tayyar Travel Holding Company as a 'related company'. There have been several press reports in recent years that the airline was looking to go public on the Egyptian Stock Exchange, with as much as 30% of the carrier's stock being offered to Egyptian investors, with the owner and founder Nasser Al Tayyar retaining a 40% stake.

Business trends

Nile Air is a private company, and annual reports are not published. In the absence of these, limited information on financial trends especially, is available. Available figures are shown below (for years ending 31 December):

Head office

The airline's head office is located opposite Cairo International Airport's Terminal 1 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.

Destinations

As of April 2025, Nile Air serves the following destinations with scheduled services:

Fleet

, the Nile Air fleet consists of the following aircraft:

References

External links

* {{IATA members, mideast Airlines of Egypt Airlines established in 2009 Arab Air Carriers Organization members Companies based in Cairo Egyptian companies established in 2009