Historically, Egypt has been a late-booking location. We have, nonetheless, observed a shift in booking patterns considering that the troubles of last year and the industry to Egypt has bounced back highly immediately. Our most effective- selling tours are Splendours of Egypt, Delights of the Nile, and the Nile to the Red Sea. The tours are more trendy than ever and advance bookings very much more powerful than in earlier years. Demand for Egypt is growing in general, even even though most of the development appears to be to Sharm el Sheikh and Taba.

Paul Riches, sales and marketing director, Libra Holidays

Libra Holidays has extra Dubai and Jordan to its 2005 Egypt and Red Sea Riviera brochure, claiming they will aid enhance agents’ earnings.

As costs for the two destinations are higher than for Red Sea resorts this kind of as Taba, Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada, agents will earn alot more commission.

Libra previously introduced Dubai for 2002, but withdrew it when demand for the Middle East slumped just after the September 11 attacks.

Sales and promoting director Paul Riches stated: “Points in each the Middle East and Egypt have bounced back now, so we want to capitalise on this.

“We introduced Taba for 2004 and it had a exceptional summer season.”

In Dubai, Libra is offering seven four and five-star hotels on Jumeirah Beach.

AIRLINE Industry Important information-(C)1997-2004 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Egyptian officials investigating the Flash Airlines crash of January 2004 have said that it is still to early to establish the result in of the accident that killed 148 most people which includes 138 French tourists.

The accident occurred shortly soon after the Flash Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft had taken off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. A spokesperson for the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry stated that the crash had a short while ago been simulated at a Boeing test centre in the US but it was too early to draw conclusions.

The crash is currently being investigated by a group of Egyptian, French and American specialists along with Boeing, all of whom had representatives at the test. The aim of the simulation was to see if any of the voice and technical information supplied by the aircraft’s black box recorder could be made use of to offer answers as to why the it crashed. Officials said that the investigating team would meet on 15 December 2004 to discuss the outcomes of the simulation, reports AFP.

((Comments on this story may well be sent to aii.feedback@m2.com))

An aide to Israel’s PM denies a claim that Israel offered asylum to Egypt’s deposed President Hosni Mubarak a lot of months ago. The claim came from lawmaker Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former Israeli defense minister, army basic and longtime friend of the ousted Egyptian leader. He told Army Radio he proposed that Mubarak look for asylum in Israel’s Red Sea port city of Eilat, on Israel’s border with Egypt’s Sinai desert.

He mentioned the supply was created even while Mubarak was nevertheless president, through a meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort also on the Red Sea. “I met him in Sharm el-Sheikh and told him that the distance was especially quick, and probably this would be a superb time for him to heal himself”, Ben-Eliezer stated. “I am positive the Israeli government would have accepted him, but he refused simply because he is a patriot”. Ben-Eliezer said the deliver came from him and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Roni Sofer, an aide to Netanyahu, flatly denied that. “It under no circumstances occurred”, Sofer told The Associated Press. “The PM certainly not supplied Mubarak asylum”. Ben-Eliezer’s spokesman said he would make no further statements on Aug 3. Although Israel’s relations with Egypt have been chilly seeing that the two nations produced peace in 1979, Israel valued Mubarak as a supply of stability with shared interests in containing Iran and its radical Islamic proxies in the area. Mubarak’s ouster in February following a virtually 30-year autocratic reign sent shudders throughout the Israeli political and defense establishment, which fears the loss of an beneficial regional bulwark against radical Islam. Ben-Eliezer spoke shortly just before the ailing, 83-year-old Mubarak was wheeled into a Cairo courtroom lying on a hospital gurney Aug three at the commence of his trial on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters while in the uprising that ousted him. The spectacle of the ashen-faced Mubarak lying within a cage of mesh and iron bars was the to start with look the Egyptian people has had of their former leader since he delivered a defiant speech on Feb. 10 refusing to resign. The ensuing uproar forced him to step down the following day and flee the Egyptian capital.

The fatal crash of an MK Airlines B747 freighter on takeoff Oct. 14 at Halifax, Canada, “ends an unprecedented run of good luck,” according to Paul Hayes of UK-primarily based aviation consultancy Airclaims. The last fatal accident involving a transport category aircraft occurred 285 days ago, involving the Jan. three crash of an Egyptian Flash Air B737 at Sharm-el-Sheikh with 148 passengers and crew aboard. According to Hayes, about 20 percent of the 353 fatal accidents involving Western developed jets since 1970 take place inside of a week of one particular a different. Much less than 10 percent of the accidents have occurred following a 90-day gap and only one % have followed a six month hiatus. The grouping, Hayes mentioned, “Could be regarded ‘bad news for the air safety message,’ as the news media and public perception attach far far more significance to related occasions occurring in quick succession.” As for swift succession, Oct. 14 was a single of those somewhat rare days wherever two accidents occur on the identical day. The MK Airlines B747 crashed at 0350L, and a Pinnacle Airlines regional jet crashed at about 2230L, also on the 14th. “Though, offered the numerous neighborhood time zones, there was in all probability slightly above 24 hours among them,” Hayes told ASW. >> Hayes, e-mail paul.hayes@airclaims.com

[Copyright 2004 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.]