EgyptAir and Saudi Airlines are currently locked in fierce competition over Ramadan Umrah pilgrimage tickets estimated at a total value of LE750 million.
Egypt’s national carrier announced it had sold a total of 100,000 tickets at prices ranging between LE2775 and LE3192 per ticket. Travel agents, however, said they had sold an even larger number of tickets to Saudi Airlines, since the latter had declared its ticket prices long before EgyptAir.
Agents also said that Saudi Airlines’ prices were cheaper and that the airline allowed more baggage weight.
EgyptAir Commercial Assistant Manager Ashraf Hassan, however, denied that his company had a smaller share of the Umrah market than its Saudi rival.
“We plan to fly 100,000 pilgrims to Saudi during Ramadan, for which we have chartered two additional planes,” he said, noting that EgyptAir ticket prices had been announced in April.
“We have already sold 100,000 tickets from a total quota of 170,000 Saudi visas granted to Egyptians,” said EgyptAir media spokesman Mohamed Rahma.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
