Coronavirus: EgyptAir Seeks $185 Mln Loan from State Banks to Mitigate Crisis

• Egypt’s national airline, EgyptAir is applying for a 3 billion Egyptian pound ($185 million) loan from the state banks to help it deal with the coronavirus crisis.
• The outbreak of the coronavirus caused Egypt to shut down its airports to most commercial activities by mid-March, leading to a loss of 3 billion pounds in lost revenue for EgyptAir.
• The airline is expected to operate at 20-30 per cent capacity once it resumes flights at the beginning of July and 50 per cent by the end of the year, provided that the coronavirus cases do not increase.

Egypt’s national airline, EgyptAir is applying for a 3 billion Egyptian pound ($185 million) loan from the state banks to help it deal with the coronavirus crisis. This was disclosed by the chairman Mohamed Rushdi Zakaria of the airline’s state holding company on Tuesday.

The coronavirus pandemic prompted Egypt to shut down its airports to most commercial traffic by mid-March, costing EgyptAir 3 billion pounds in lost revenue, said the chairman of the holding company. Procedures to obtain the loan from Egypt’s state-owned National Bank and Banque Misr should be completed by next month, Zakaria said.

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The funds will be used to pay $12 million in instalments on foreign loans it had taken out to finance the purchase of new aircraft, he added.

The chairman further explained that EgyptAir had planned to take delivery of seven new aircraft in May but will now start receiving the first one by next month.

The airline has already postponed by three months, the lease payments on some aircraft in its possession, and others by six months.

The airline is projected to run at 20-30 per cent capacity once it resumes flights at the beginning of July and 50 per cent by the end of the year, given that coronavirus cases do not increase. The current report from the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) shows 47, 856 reported cases in Egypt and 1 766 recorded deaths.

Egypt hosted 9.78 million visitors in 2017/18, the last year for which statistics are available, according to central bank data.