Egyptian Carriers Allowed To Land In Germany Again

TheTravel

By Gene Kosowan

Published Jan 7, 2019

In December, German authorities discovered that Egyptian airlines had not upgraded their food requirements to match regulations.

When news that international flights between a European nation and a Middle East country are discontinued, due to a discrepancy involving "in-flight logistics," the first thing that hits the mind of casual news consumers is the worst possible scenario. Given the hysteria over air transport during these diplomatically unpredictable times, it's not hard to fill in those blanks.

In this case, the circumstances surrounding Germany civil aviation governing body to not allow carriers Air Cairo and Fly Egypt to arrive at and depart from the country's airports had more to do with catering. Early in December, the authorities discovered that neither airline had upgraded their food and drink requirements to match new security-based legislation passed by Germany in 2015.

Fortunately, both airlines resolved the issue before the end of the year. Fly Egypt was granted approval to service Germany on Dec. 23, with Air Cairo also getting the green light five days later.

The violated regulations in question were imposed almost immediately after a Russian charter plane crash that killed 224 occupants in 2015. Crash experts claim the aircraft, which went down in the Sinai region, was a terrorist attack. More specifically, evidence pointed towards an explosion of a bomb which analysts suspect was smuggled on board one of the cases used for catering.

Upon the discovery that Air Cairo and Fly Egypt didn't conform to those regulatory changes made three years ago, authorities had no choice but to restrict their access to Germany. That said, no other security measures were breached, leaving it up to the carriers to make the necessary changes.

The major problem centred on where in Egypt the food and beverages were loaded onto the planes. The new legislation only allows Egyptian planes to bring the catering on board Germany-bound flights at the airport in Cairo. However, the two airlines in question also loaded food and beverage on flights leaving other Egyptian airports like Hurghada and Sharm eo-Sheikh, which directly violates the new German flight regulations. German airliners bound for Egypt are not bound by this regulatory update as enough catering is loaded onto planes in Germany for its return flights.