EgyptAir teams up with US consultancy group

The national airline, EgyptAir, announced on Wednesday that it would partner with the Texas-based Sabre Airline Solutions in an attempt to “increase revenue, improve efficiencies and explore new revenue streams.” 

The airline has been struggling for the past few years and has lost more than LE6 billion since 2010.

“This is a comprehensive project to review the company’s current situation and recommend changes and solutions across almost every part of our business. Sabre is recognized as the best in the airline technology industry. They know our business, our region, the challenges and opportunities we face, and they have a superior track record of helping airlines globally achieve sustained growth and profitability. Sabre will play a critical role in our five-year transformation strategy,” said Captain Sameh al-Hefny, the Chairman and CEO of EgyptAir Holding Company, in a press release on Sabre’s website on Wednesday.

EgyptAir hired Sabre Airline Solutions as part of a project that aims to make the airline profitable again by mid-2016.

Although data on EgyptAir for the last fiscal year is currently unavailable, the numbers from the past three years look grim. However, Sabre Airline Solutions' Vice President Alessandro Ciancimino stated that he was confident that EgyptAir has the “potential for growth and success,” in the press release.

Sabre and EgyptAir have worked together previously; they signed a distribution contract in 2012, and according to Business Insider, the companies first partnered in 1997.

The 2012 distribution contract aimed to make EgyptAir “accessible by more than 350,000 travel agents who use the Sabre global distribution system, putting Egyptian tourism back on the map for the world,” according to a press release.

EgyptAir was founded in 1932 and operates scheduled passenger and freight services to more than 75 destinations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia and the Americas.

The company’s recent losses followed the dramatic drop in tourism since the January 25, 2011 Revolution, although the tourism sector has recently shown some signs of recovery.