Egyptair is expanding its services to Italia
The route between Venice and Cairo is now up and running, whilst a third weekly flight from Milan Malpensa will begin operating on Thursday
There is a new route between Venice and Cairo, and from Thursday Malpensa will have a third flight to the Egyptian capital. Egyptair is expanding its services to Italia and, in the summer of 2026, launched the route between the north-east and Egypt with 34 direct flights. In particular, around 10,000 seats are available on the Venice–Cairo–Venice route, a figure set to double this coming winter. Nationwide, this summer the Egyptian national carrier will operate 68 additional flights to and from Egypt, bringing the total to 560 flights between 29 June and 23 October – a 15 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2025. The Venice–Cairo route operates twice a week – on Mondays and Fridays – and is the result of a partnership with Save, the company managing Venice’s Marco Polo Airport. The aim is to serve a strategic catchment area such as the north-east, catering for both tourist traffic and business travel, as well as travel linked to international communities, whilst Milan represents a catchment area with 528,000 passengers travelling to Cairo and Sharm El Sheikh, representing a 24 per cent year-on-year increase.
The new route from Venice is primarily aimed at capturing and meeting the growing interest among Italian tourists in Egypt, a trend that saw a 49.5 per cent increase in 2025, totalling 800,000 visitors – driven by the opening last November of the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Cairo and renewed interest in Nile cruises. Business travel is also significant: numerous companies from the Triveneto region, operating across various sectors and supply chains, are developing ongoing commercial relationships with Egypt.
“The new Venice–Cairo route represents a further step in Egyptair’s international growth strategy and confirms the importance of our relations with Italia,” said Salah Tawfik, Egyptair’s General Manager for Italy and Malta. “ The north-east is a strategic area for our development, thanks to the opportunity to connect passengers to the airline’s entire international network via our Cairo hub, which is already investing significantly in the development of passenger services and airport infrastructure. As members of Star Alliance, we are also delighted to offer our passengers global connections, lounge access, priority services and frequent flyer benefits. Over the last few years, Italia has become one of the best-performing markets within our European portfolio, and the launch of Venice – our third Italian gateway after Rome and Milan – enables us to increase capacity and diversify traffic flows, with an expected positive impact on both load factor and operational profitability. According to estimates, the connectivity offered by our Cairo hub, together with the new scheduled flights from Venice, could generate up to 16 per cent growth in traffic on the Italia market, thanks to connections to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. This corresponds to an estimated increase of around 40,000 passengers per year and revenue of approximately 9 million euros.”
The new route is operated using an Airbus A320neo and will offer passengers both business class and economy class services. For the first few months of operation, the airline expects particularly positive results, with an average load factor of 80 per cent, based on bookings already made, and an estimated 7,000 passengers carried by the end of October. The airline has also announced that the route will be scheduled for the 2026/27 winter season, starting on 24 October, confirming as of today that there will be three weekly flights from Venice to Cairo, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
“The launch of Egyptair’s Venice–Cairo route connects Marco Polo Airport with one of North Africa’s major capitals, a hub providing access to an extensive network of destinations across the African continent, which, in 2025, represented the fastest-growing market for our airport, with 300,000 passengers travelling to African destinations – an increase of 27 per cent compared with the previous year. Furthermore, Cairo is an excellent hub for onward travel to destinations in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent,” emphasises Enrico Marchi, Chairman of the Save Group. “The new flight will be crucial not only for the development of tourist flows, but also for strengthening economic relations between the two countries, which are already thriving in our region, particularly in the fisheries and textiles sectors,” he adds.
