Tour companies angry after raise of- Hajj ticket prices

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Sun, 30 Jul 2017 - 02:00 GMT

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Sun, 30 Jul 2017 - 02:00 GMT

File Photo: Muslim pilgrims pray around the holy Kaaba at the Grand Mosque ahead of the annual haj pilgrimage in Mecca September 21, 2015 - Reuters

File Photo: Muslim pilgrims pray around the holy Kaaba at the Grand Mosque ahead of the annual haj pilgrimage in Mecca September 21, 2015 - Reuters

CAIRO – 30 July 2017: Before the beginning of the Islamic pilgrimage season (Hajj), EgyptAir angered tourism companies by raising the prices of Hajj flight tickets and driving them to look for other airlines offering packages Sunday.

In the wake of EgyptAir’s raise of ticket prices, the Religious Tourism Committee and owners of tour companies called on the minister of aviation and EgyptAir Holding Company to go back on their decision.

EgyptAir chairperson, Safwat Musallam stated that EgyptAir will not change its tickets’ pricing for the current Hajj season and that the prices have been set previously by a committee, according to supply and demand.

EgyptAir affirmed that the company is facing a defamation campaign.

Commenting on the new EgyptAir pricing plan , Adel Shaban, a member of the General Assembly for Tourism Company said the Egyptian pilgrims are divided to many segments; saying that new ticket prices will not apply to Interior Ministry and economic pilgrimage, but to the forty thousand pilgrims who travel to Saudi Arabia on business class via tourism companies.

Ticket prices for business class will range between LE 10,000 ($559.19) and LE 23,000, which means LE 10,000 higher than Saudi Airlines, Shaban added. He slammed the “unjustified” raise of ticket prices and called on EgyptAir to cancel this decision.

Resorting to Saudi Airlines will not be a solution as their capacity doesn’t exceed three thousand pilgrims while forty thousand pilgrims are harmed.

The Egyptian Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) issued a statement affirming that the tickets’ prices will not change to pilgrims who travel via the Ministry of Social Solidarity this year.

Basel el-Sisi, another member of the General Assembly for Tourism stated that most of companies working in the market will incur losses due to EgyptAir new pricing plan.

Muslims from all over the world travel to Mecca on the 12th month of the Islamic calendar to perform pilgrimage via aviation, maritime, and ground transportations.

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