IATA warns Egypt against holding onto foreign airline revenues

Egypt risks damaging its aviation industry if it continues to block the release of hundreds of millions of dollars owed to foreign airlines, the IATA has warned. Egypt owes $250m worth of local ticket sales to international airlines, IATA said late Sunday. That is down from the $291m that owed in June. IATA said that it is working with Egyptian authorities “to find a practical solution to release forex (foreign exchange) to airlines in order to avoid any unintended, detrimental effects on the country’s aviation industry.” IATA warned in June that airlines could stop flying to Egypt if they were not able to remit local sales revenue. Emirates, which operates 17 weekly flights to Cairo, said Monday that is has “agreed with the relevant authorities on a short-term financial scheme for remitting its residual revenues according to a timeline.” It did not provide details of the timeline or say how much it was owed. Etihad Airways, which flies 28 times a week to Cairo, declined to comment when asked if it had revenues stuck in Egypt. <br/>