Lufthansa resumes flights to Cairo

Lufthansa temporarily cancelled flights to Cairo on Saturday 20th July citing security concerns. On the 21st though flights had re-started from their German bases. British Airways also cancelled flights on the 20th and these cancellations remain in place. A review of British Airways flights to Cairo will take place later in the week. No specific information has been provided by either airline.

British Airways suspension of flights to Cairo

Although Lufthansa cancelled and resumed flights British Airways had acted first. Lufthansa followed suit shortly after, cancelling their flights to Cairo. So far no other Egyptian airports have been affected.

A letter issued by British Airways stated :

We constantly review our security arrangements at all our airports around the world and have suspended flight to Cairo for seven days as a precaution to allow further assessment.

The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our priority, and we would never operate an aircraft unless it was safe to do so.

The abrupt suspension of flights prompted wild speculation. Some sources claimed the Iran situation has triggered the cancellation of flights. Or that a specific threat related to the wider region had focused on Cairo as a weak spot in security. The Iran speculation in particular seems wide of the mark but it is hard to tell.

Neither Lufthansa or British Airways have commented on why flights were suspended. The travel advisories of both Germany and the UK remained unaffected. It appears these were decisions taken directly by British Airways and Lufthansa in relation to Cairo specifically.

The knock-on effect in the UK on cargo could be some severe delays. Cargo already received into British Airways cargo shed will be severely impacted. As a transhipment hub from other countries cargo will already be en-route with British Airways. Lufthansa‘s impact on cargo to Cairo will be more minimal with only a day’s backlog to clear spread across multiple German airports.