Photo Gallery of visit to Egypt, March/April 2007

Egypt

Flight Report: Monarch MON6458 LGW-LXR
London Gatwick- Luxor
Saturday 24th March 2007
Boeing 757-200 G-MONK

Gatwick South Terminal at 9am on a Saturday Morning was at first sight rather crowded, and seeing the queues in the check-in area, my heart sank. However it appeared that these were mainly for a Zoom Air flight to ?Calgary (judging by all the ski equipment!), and when I fought my way through to the Monarch desk, there was a queue of one! Having collected some traveller's cheques, Passport control seemed equally crowded, but the queues upstairs, where some passengers were directed, were much shorter. I was in the departure lounge by 9.30am, not at all bad. Stocked up on water and books, then headed for the Servisair lounge, where I could hide from the hustle and bustle of duty-free, read the paper and get a pretty good view of runway activities.

The flight was ready to board promptly though the hike to gate 38 is about the furthest in the South Terminal. Pushback was even 10 minutes early and even with a taxi to take off on 08R, we were in the air quite quickly. The flight was about 70% full, and having read many warnings about the Monarch 29" seat pitch, I had decided to book exit row upgrades- well worth it, as I was able to stretch out in comfort with more leg room than many a Premium Economy or Business class offering! The caveat is that the window seat has a bulky panel from the emergency exit, so I found the middle seat the better option, as I had the whole row of 6 to myself; the crew did enforce the rule as one or two people did try to move! The only downside to the seat was that queues for the toilets sometimes stood around in the legroom, and at one point the loo queue was joined by three duty free trolleys trying to pass.

Drinks were not complimentary, but priced not unlike what you might pay in a pub, and the meal was quite acceptable- a savoury potato in dressing starter, chicken and leek main course, lemon cheesecake, cheese and biscuits.

IFE wasn't bad- Casino Royale followed by Happy Feet. 007 had quite a few cuts (of both the facial and cinematic varieties) but I had to smile when I noticed that although the Miami Airport sequence remained, all the Virgin Atlantic planes had their livery removed- plain red tail fin etc- I wonder if this is the same if the film is shown on VS flights?The flight-plan took us over the Alps and down the Adriatic, though as much of the European mainland was covered in cloud, not much to be seen out of the window!

The coastline of Crete (I think) was pretty clear, and it wasn't long before the desert came into sight then vanished again as night fell as we descended to arrive in Luxor (Rwy 02) after almost exactly 5 hours in the air.

Just a touch of right rudder as we landed and a short taxi to a stand on the apron; airstairs were supplied to both front and rear, though we were not invited to disembark via the rear stairs. A pleasant experience- the empty seats plus the generous legroom helped, though I can well see why a full flight in standard seats might well be viewed as rather uncomfortable. Luxor Airport- a well organised reception by the tour company, who sorted visas quickly (and collected money- in sterling- later), immigration and passport control quick, and coaches were waiting to take the passengers to their hotels or boats.

Flight Report: Monarch MON6459
Luxor- London Gatwick- LXR-LGW
Saturday 7th April 2007
Boeing 757-200- G-MOND

View Large View Medium Photo © Roel van der Velpen - MST-Aviation

The coaches bringing passengers to Luxor airport from the town centre hotel pickup arrived at about 5pm and it was a chance to see what looked like quite a new terminal building in daylight. Upon arrival, all luggage including hand luggage needs to be security checked prior to check-in, and being in one of the first coaches to arrive, I found this to be quick and efficient. There were four desks for check-in, and this too was reasonably quick. Passengers were given a short 'emigration form' to complete and passport control was a formality, leading upstairs to a tidy and neat duty free area and café. Most of the seating was in the café area, reserved for those who purchase at least one drink, but a useful place to spend final loose change. A small variety of duty free shops had prices in US dollars, though would accept local currency, sterling or euros. As I hadn't been expecting much, the departure area was a pleasant surprise. I noticed that the gate area had more seats and would be another bottleneck with security- another scanner- so when the staff indicated that I could come through, I did so with ease about 10 minutes before the announcement was made to proceed to the gate area. My water (2 bottles) was allowed through without comment and I felt the security team seemed very 'relaxed'- not for the first time in Egypt did I walk through the scanner with belt, wallet, watch all on me, the machine bleep, and being waved through. It was just possible to see the apron and I noticed that the Monarch 752 had recently arrived and arriving passengers were disembarking- before long the flight was called and everyone else queued up to get through security. After a short wait- the aircraft cleaning must have been completed in record time, we were on buses and boarding. As I had booked extra-leg room before leaving the UK I had the same seat as the outbound journey (31A) although there were three others in the row this time, and the flight at about 90-95% capacity. The main disadvantage of the exit row seats is that the central armrests are fixed, thanks to the tray, so can't be retracted. Complimentary copies of the Daily Telegraph and Independent were available- a nice touch and a chance to catch up with the rest of the world.

We pushed back on time and as the only flight in the airport at the time, could taxi and take off quickly on Rwy 02, turning NW over the Nile and Valley of the Kings. Following a drinks run, the meal was again fairly acceptable- a sweetcorn and pasta starter, chicken with potato, carrots, beans and dumpling, a chocolate cheesecake and cheese and biscuits. IFE consisted of the two films 'Stranger than Fiction' and 'Night at the Museum', though no moving map at all.

Little to be seen out of the window of course for much of the flight, but trying to identify what was coast, desert and mountain in the darkness kept me busy for the at times during the flight- it looks like the route took us over the eastern side of Italy, passing over Milan, over the Alps and over NW France, with a good view of Paris on our port side, before crossing the Channel between Dieppe and Eastbourne for what I reckon was a Timba 2B STAR and at least one circuit in the holding pattern.

After a flight time of 5 hours and 30 minutes, we touched down (a little hard, though nothing uncomfortable) at Gatwick on runway 08R, and a short taxi to Gate 22 on Pier 2 of the South terminal. Gatwick at Midnight was not quite as efficient as Luxor, and it took a good 20-25 minutes for luggage to appear, not including quite a queue at passport control- and only two EC desks open!

Sorry, no photographs this time- a bit too dark to get anything usable without a tripod.

Flight Report HRG-CAI-HRG

Outbound: HRG-CAI
Egypt Air flight MS160, 2nd April 2007 06:50 local time

A320-232 SU-GCD
View Large View MediumPhoto © Balazs Pinter
View Large View MediumPhoto © Guillaume Dhoore

A day trip to Cairo from the Red Sea coast at El Gouna presented itself, as well as the opportunity to fly Egypt Air there and back. So it was that a group of six intrepid Brits plus their Egyptian ‘fixer’ were at Hurghada airport at 6am on an April morning. Security was interesting- the bottled water ban seemed to apply, sort of, as I was asked to dispose of an opened half-consumed bottle, but the second sealed bottle was allowed through- but some of the others travelling with me were asked to dispose of their sealed bottle as well. The flight was 20 minutes late in pushing back, and the plane an A320-200 (SU-GCD)- on the website it was listed as an A330 but presumably passenger numbers dictated the change of plane- the A320 was 98% full however. My seat was 37K, well to the back of the cabin. The usual safety briefing, with an annoying little cartoon man, was broadcast twice on the drop-down screens, in Arabic then English, and was preceded by what I assume was a prayer from the Koran.There was little other traffic to prevent an efficient taxi and takeoff and the routing took us north up the Red Sea to the West of the Sinai peninsula at FL220, with some excellent views of the coral reefs, the Sinai mountains- and shipping en route to/from the Suez canal. In flight service wasn’t at all bad for a short domestic flight- a ‘breakfast’ consisting of a slice of sponge cake, a carton of fruit juice and tea/coffee- not time for much more, but efficiently served.

The TV screens showed a documentary on the restoration of some 19th century palace- I didn’t get the name, as I wasn’t watching the subtitles too closely. There were even some interesting features in the in-flight magazine, Horus. Quite a bit of cloud over Cairo approaches at about 7000 feet, but we soon dropped below that and made our approach to land (I think) on 5R; the touchdown was one of the softest that I have ever experienced, at least in recent memory- reaching c 10 feet and then lowering down ever so gently- on rollout thrust reversers were not deployed. Taxi via 34 and, surprising, part of 23R, to an open stand near the domestic terminal, where a fleet of airport buses eventually arrived to deplane us.All in all, an efficient flight with good service.

Return: CAI-HRG,
Egypt Air MS153, 2nd April 2007, 22:00 local time
A330-243 SU-GCI

View Large View MediumPhoto © Ian Schofield

Following an action packed day in Cairo, time to return to the airport, after a pleasant meal at the Sheraton airport hotel, which seems to be used by a lot of flight crews, and a lot of people awaiting an airport pickup. Once arrived at the terminal, time to be less British and join the scrum of people waiting to get through pre-check in security- two scanners only for the whole terminal and lots of people and suitcases to process- it makes BAA look organised! Our Cairo airport ‘fixer’ in the meantime took tickets to go off, check-in on our behalf and collect the boarding cards. Once through, the terminal was busy enough to make the only sensible option to go straight to the departure lounge where seats were available- this time security let all water bottles through, despite there here being signs similar to EU airports about restrictions on liquids etc. At no point was the bottle of sun-tan spray in my hand-luggage ever questioned- I had brought a well-used bottle so if I had to relinquish it, so be it; when I checked with Mr Fixer, he said, “No problem” (which usually means “no, problem!”) so I was surprised to get through with everything intact!The departure lounge soon became pretty crowded, but we were near a TV screen with very fuzzy images of CNN news- at least something to watch. Boarding started just about on time, and I was wondering if we were to be on an A320 again- seemed rather too many people for that. In fact as the airport bus approached the stand, it was clear we were on an A330-243 (SU-GCI) and that this was going to be pretty full again. When checking flight details, I had noticed that this flight was sold out for the rest of the week, so clearly the holiday season had begun in Cairo as well. As a result of the larger plane, 36F was not a starboard window seat but one in the middle section so I was unable to observe much life outside the goldfish bowl. However, they did switch the TVs to the external (downward) view camera- not sure where it is, looked to be the nosewheel area, but perhaps someone can enlighten me- as it was dark, not too much to be seen anyway, but a nice touch.

The return flight, with a tailwind, was much quicker, and although the captain said we would be at FL330, we can’t have been there very long- but even so, still time for a late, late breakfast service which was identical to the earlier catering! In flight show appeared to be some classical music concert, but without my headphones or subtitles, I could only guess! Approach to Hurghada was straightforward, down the coast, then a righthand turn to line up for Rwy 34; it had been quite windy locally, so to detect some use of rudder on touchdown to straighten us up was not surprising. Again, quick taxi to a stand, and a fleet of buses to take us to Domestic arrivals and greeted by our local ‘fixer’; the scary part of the evening, being driven back to the hotels, was about to begin!I was impressed with much of the experience- Egypt Air were professional and efficient, the planes were very well turned out, and the only poor part of the experience was Cairo airport departure terminal- which seemed too small to cope properly with the volume of passengers it had at that time- and where the insects managed to attack my right foot, the only bites that got through in two weeks in Egypt!