EgyptAir pilots withdraw resignations after Sisi asks them to ‘think about the country’

The 250 EgyptAir pilots who quit en masse earlier this week in protest against low wages have withdrawn their resignation at the behest of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Reuters-affiliated news site Aswat Masreya reported on Friday.

“In response to calls from the president of the republic, the Pilots Association and all the pilots have decided to withdraw our resignation,” their statement said.

Sisi recently gave a speech at a seminar for the Armed Forces in which he exhorted the pilots to bear in mind the current situation in the country, and the challenges faced by their employer, the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

“You know that EgyptAir has wins and losses, but for all the Egyptian people, we must take responsibility until we exit the crisis we are in,” Aswat Masreya quoted Sisi as saying.

The statement from the Pilots Association asserted that no flights had been delayed due to their attempted resignation, which they revoked in the best interests of the company.

It is unclear whether salary negotiations between the Pilots Association and EgyptAir’s financial and legal department will continue.

When the pilots first submitted their resignations on May 5, they released a statement saying, “The pilots at EgyptAir receive the lowest salaries in the world. It is for this reason that we are submitting our collective resignations.”

The pilots would “seek employment at any other company or airline which recognizes the value and utility of its pilots,” the statement concluded.

Salaries for EgyptAir pilots have been fixed since 2006, according to Al-Ahram. They have been demanding a 25 percent pay raise to compensate for the nine-year period in which their salaries remained flat, in addition to another 25 percent gradual pay raise over the course of the next fiscal year.  

There are currently around 850 pilots working for EgyptAir, meaning that about 20 percent of the fleet would have left if the pilots went through with their resignation, said Al-Ahram.

The last time EgyptAir pilots engaged in mass protests and slow-downs was in mid-June 2013, which resulted in the delay of more than 20 flights. Following those protests they received promises from employers that their salaries would improve, but those promises have yet to materialize.