EgyptAir begins flights to 3 new European destinations; now serves 27 airports with record capacity
EgyptAir is Africa’s second-largest carrier for international capacity, behind Ethiopian Airlines. In 2026, Cirium schedule data shows that Egyptian flag carrier has 12.97 million non-stop one-way international seats, which is 2% above the prior record set in 2025.
7.55 million of EgyptAir’s one-way international seats are deployed within Africa, 2.74 million to the Middle East, 1.84 million to Europe, 463,000 to Asia and 371,000 to North Asia.
Europe accounts for 14% of the total. Available seats have risen by 3% year-over-year to the highest volume yet. Obviously, nearly all the airline’s European operations exist from its Cairo hub (96%), with the rest from Hurghada, Luxor and Sharm el Sheikh. Only Cairo routes are considered here.
EgyptAir begins flying to 3 more European airports this year
On 29 July 2026, Venice VCE welcomed the carrier (3-weekly), alongside service to Milan MXP and Rome FCO. Cirium data shows that the launch contributes to Italy’s capacity growing by 16% to 228,000 one-way seats in 2026, which is the highest volume in 13 years.
On 25 October, EgyptAir will begin flying to Birmingham (4-weekly), joining London LHR and Manchester. A record 304,000 departing seats will be available to the UK, 5% above the previous high. On 18 December, the airline will take off from Cairo to Stockholm ARN (4-weekly). It’ll return to ARN – and Sweden – after 22 years.
Other European routes have started recently. On 8 July 2024, Zurich joined the airline’s network (3-weekly in September 2026), followed by Prague on 9 July 2024 (3-weekly). Flights to Lisbon began on 23 July 2024 but that route ended in May 2025.
Based on having 5,000 seats or more, EgyptAir has stopped flying to these six European destinations in the past 18 years. Berlin SXF is excluded as the airline serves Brandenburg.
- 2008: Antalya and Paris ORY
- 2009: Paphos
- 2011: Catania
- 2014: Malta
- 2025: Lisbon
EgyptAir has flights from Cairo to 27 European airports
The 27 European airports, shown below, are in 18 countries, with Sweden being new for 2026. Compared to last year, 15 of them have more capacity. The strongest winners are Italy (+25%), France (+7%), Russia (+7%), Belgium (+5%) and the UK (+5%).
The only countries with fewer available seats are the Greece (-2%) and the Netherlands (-5%). Both are more or less because of lower-capacity aircraft being deployed, as flights remain about the same or – in the case of Amsterdam – at the exact same level (daily) as in 2025.
With 227,000 one-way seats, Cairo-London LHR is EgyptAir’s leading European route. It has 13% of the airline’s seats to that continent. 3-daily flights exist to LHR, which also makes it number one in this sense too. The peak departure from Cairo to LHR still deploys widebody equipment – usually the 777-300ER but at times the A350-900 and 787-9.
It is estimated that three-quarters of the airline’s European passengers only travel to and from Cairo. The remaining quarter fly elsewhere, with Egypt (all those holiday hotspots), Saudi Arabia, India, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, the UAE and Iraq being particularly important countries.
