Thomson has dropped plans to triple capacity for Egypt, slashing its flight programme by more than 20% in the wake of July’s Sharm el-Sheikh bombings.
Thomsonfly has cut Red Sea capacity ahead of winter, blaming slowed demand after the bombings.
Two new routes that were due to launch from Birmingham to Taba and Marsa Alam have been axed.
Birmingham agents claim passengers may now bypass Egypt altogether.
Lordswood Travel manager Shirnett Ballantyne said: “The view in Birmingham is we have a great airport, why can’t we fly from here? Passengers will just go somewhere else.”
Thomsonfly had planned to offer 27 weekly flights ex-UK from November. Instead it will operate 21 weekly services, still “more than double” last winter’s capacity. Weekly flights from Luton to Hurghada, and Doncaster to Sharm el-Sheikh, are among those scrapped.
It will go ahead with a new Manchester-Marsa Alam weekly flight next season, but buy seats from Thomas Cook rather than operate the service itself.
A second weekly Glasgow to Sharm service will debut, buying seats from First Choice.
Rivals Thomas Cook, First Choice and Airtours Holidays have no immediate plans to cut Egypt capacity. The Egyptian State Tourist Office will run another Red Sea Riviera advertising campaign in the UK from October. Its charter incentive programme has been extended to Sharm until October 15. The scheme pays operators a fee per empty charter seat up to a maximum of 94% capacity.
Tourist office director UK and Ireland Khaled Ramy ruled out hotel rate cuts.
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