(Globe and Mail-Canada) Patrick Martin - A lone white Boeing 737 aircraft - with no logo or name displayed - sits in a far corner of Cairo International Airport. The plane is the entire fleet of the phantom airline: Air Sinai, a semi-secret division of Egypt Air. The Israel-Egypt peace treaty called for the national airline of each country to fly regularly in and out of the other country's main international airport, so Air Sinai was created in 1982. While Israel's El Al airline happily complied, taking often-full flights to the Egyptian capital, the owner of Egypt Air, the government of Egypt, was a little squirmier. Air Sinai flies to and from Tel Aviv every week, without being listed by Egypt Air among its flights or on its maps. It's hard to find Air Sinai online, and it's impossible to book a seat. Its telephone number is unlisted and its flights are not announced over the airport PA system.
2011-09-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive